Full text of "An emigrant's home letters"

See other formats

THE LIBRARY

THE UNIVERSITY

OF CALIFORNIA

LOS ANGELES

SONGS FROM "THE MAN FROM SNOWY RIVER."

THE BUSHMAN'S SONG. "I'm travelling down the Castlereagh
and I'm a station hand." Words by A. B. Paterson ; Music by E. J*.
Truman. 2s. net ; post free, '2s. 2d.

LAST WEEK. " Oh ! the new chum went to the back block run, but
he should have gone there last week." Humorous song. Words by A. B
Paterson ; Music by E. P. Truman. 2s. net ; post free, 2s. 2d.

" A Bu=hnian'8 Song," with its capital chonis, has been wedded to a firm and spirited melody ;
and there is a vein of quaint mclodj- in " Last W^ek " whicli fairly suits the humour of the veise —
Sydiiiy Morning Herald.

These two songs are musical, and should quickly become popular. — Neiocastlc Morninn Herald.

Rattling good songs. . . . full of ias\\.— Uivhmond River Express.

We highly recouunend them to male vocalists in search of a good song. — Laimceston Daily
Teleriraph .

As Llioiiiii and good rollicking songs they can be recommended.— CaiAoZtc Press.

DAYLIGHT IS DYING. Words by A. B. Paterson ; Music by Rene
Goring-Thumas. 2s. net ; post free, 2s. 2d.

" Daylight is Diiiig," should prove popular. — Sydney ^torninf| Herald.

A very attractive and melodious song. — Daily Teleyrnph.

The music is attractive, and should prove popular. — Newcastle Herald.

The simple grace of the music is in harmony with the \vorA3.—T<mii and Country Journal.

Its simplicitj and sweetness should make it a general favourite. — Educational Gazette of

x.s.vr.

This pretty song only requires to be known to become popular. — Presbyterian.

\/
EMIGEANT'S HOMl:.

LETTEES

HENRY PARKES

WITH PREPACK and NOTES BY ANNIE T. PARKES

ANGUS & ROBERTSON

^oohsellcrs to llje Unlbfrsilg
1896

\'V-

PzB3

THE MfiMDRY

MY DEAR FATHER AND MOTHER

I DEDICATE THIS BOOK

X AiK o»^/ A^- 3 G

PREFACE

In launching this little book upon the stormy
waves of the sea of criticism I am not troubled
by many fears. I believe that the name of
Henry Parkes will yet be dear to the heart of
every patriotic son of Federated Australia, and
that all concerning him will be very precious in
their eyes. The mistakes, the errors, and the
failures of the last years of his life will be wiped
away as one would brush dust from a beloved
dead face. Who that is just will judge of him
by the years between seventy and eighty ? No !
By the glorious aims, by the high hopes, by the
great achievements, and the ringing eloquence
of his grand manhood will he be judged; and
when Australasia takes her place among the
great nations of the world, his name will be
inscribed in golden letters upon the annals of
her history. And the very least of her sons

8 PREFACE

may learn a lesson from his wondrous life, a
lesson of high-souled courage, patient endur-
ance, and marvellous perseverance. I send forth
these pages to tell their simple story of how, in
spite of bitter poverty, much hardship, and utter
want of education, Henry Parkes fought his way
to everlasting fame.

ANNIE T. PARKES.

Leichhardt, 11th July, 1896.

INTRODUCTION

On the 11 til of July, 1836, Henry Parkes and
Clarinda Varney were married at tlie Cliurcli of
England church at Edgbaston, a suburb of Bir-
mingham, the only witness present being either
the clerk or the verger. Clarinda Varney was the
only daughter of Robert Varney, a man well to
do in his little world. My mother used to say
she had the blood of Varney, the villain of
Kenihmrth, in her veins ; and we children
would assure her that was nothing to be
proud of. She left her home in consequence
of cruel persecution from her step-mother, and
her father never spoke to her again. Often
have I sat on my little stool close to her side
and listened to the never-tiring story of her
sufferings and trials, brightened only by the
devoted love between her and my father. I
believe she was engaged to him for two years

10 INTRODUCTION

before she left lier home, and she married him
some months afterwards, she being twenty-three
and he twenty-one. They married without any
provision for their wedded life, except the
work they could obtain from day to day, and
went back from Edgbaston to live in the little
room in Birmingham where she had lodged
while alone. My father's relatives were very
good to her, and she used often to tell me about
the daily visits she and her little brown dog paid
to the old father of the husband she so fondly
loved. They had a bitter struggle for existence,
and lost two children. Then they decided to go
to London, with an idea of emigrating to Aus-
tralia,— which, to their untutored minds, must
indeed have appeared a veritable land of convicts
and blackfelloAvs, but still the 'land of promise'
where the}' might prosper as they could not do
at home.

My father had three sisters — Sarah, Maria,
and Eliza, These letters are chiefly addressed
to the eldest, Sarah, to whom he was greatly
attached, and of whom he thus writes to my
mother in 1861 : —

' All is now over. Poor Sarah died this
' morning at two o'clock, Next to you and our
' dear children I have now lost the dearest

INTRODUGTION 11

* creature that remained to ine upon earth. She
'was a mother tome in my childhood, and all
' through life she was doubly dear for her
' meekly-borne sufferings. She, whose earthly
' lot was one of uninterrupted trial and labour,
' has now gone to eternal rest. God be praised
' for his mercy in bringing me here by such an
' accident to lighten the burden of her last
' moments.' My father was then in England
on a lecturing tour with the late William Bede
Dalley.

The letters were given to me at Faulconbridge
early in the eighties by my Aunt Maria, and it
was her wish, and my father's also, that I should
publish them after his death. He was the
youngest of his family, and the last to die. And
now I will leave the letters to speak for them-
selves.

CONTENTS

PAGE

Preface

Introduction

Letter One ...

Letter Two...

Letter Three

Letter Four

Letter Five

Letter Six ...

Letter Seven

Letter Eight

Letter Nine

Letter Ten...

Letter Eleven

Letter Twelve

Letter Thirteen

Letter Fourteen

Letter Fifteen

Letter Sixteen

Letter Seventeen

Letter Eighteen

14 CONTENTS

PAGE

Letter Nineteen

Letter Twenty

Letter Twenty-One

8»

Letter Twenty-Two

Letter Twenty-Three ....

Letter Twenty-Four

Letter Twenty-Five

... 103

Letter Twenty-Six

... Ill

Letter Twenty-Seven ...

... 115

Letter Twenty-Eight ...

... 117

Letter Twenty-Nine

... 126

Letter Thirty

... 128

Letter Thirty-One

... 133

Letter Thirty-Two

... 136

Letter Thirty-Three ...

... 140

Appendix —

Letter from Mr. J. G. Horn

:)lower

... 145

The Emigi-ant's Farewell to

lis Country . . .

... 15a

My Native Land

... 152

LETTERS

LETTER ONE.

London,
Sunday, 25th Noveviber, 1838.

My Dear Sister,

By tlie time you receive this letter I hope
my father will have g-ot the better of the severe
illness which he suffered under when I left
Birmingham, and together with my poor dear
mother, and you all, be better in health and
spirits than I can hope for. As I did not get
lodgings till late yesterday, I hope you will
excuse my not writing before to-day. I shall
now endeavour to tell you all that has passed
since we parted.

The train which we came up by left Birming-
ham about one o'clock, and for the first fifty
miles of the journey the rain and wind beat
through the nothing but naked windows of our

18 AN EMIGRANTS HOME LETTERS

second-class carriage with such bitterness that I
began to think we should surely be the subject
of a tale in the ' Penny Storyteller/ entitled
'The Weather Slain.' We saw very little of
any interest on the way, except the tunnels, one
of which is nearly two miles long. Had it been
a hundred, we should not have been so murdered
by the weather, but as it was, we were through
it in five minutes. We saw nothing of Coventry
but about a hundred poor men's houses, two
church steeples, and two or three high chimneys,
the line of road being cut through the rising
ground on the right of the city several yards
deep. The day cleared up as it died away, and
the ghost of a devil that dragged us along tore
out from Primrose Hill with the bright crescent
moon above us in a calm and beautiful sky. In
half an hour afterwards we were in London.

I enquired of one of the company's porters
where I could get lodged for the night, and he
directed me to a coffee-house just outside the
gates, and offered to carry our baggage there;
but when we got to the gates the sentinel would
not let him go out. That the fellow knew well
enough, so I was obliged to have another to
carry it the other six yards. A double expense
to begin with. On Friday I found out Houldin's,

LETTER ONE 19

and went there thinking that John might be able
to tell me where I could get a lodging; but, after
wasting all the morning, and being treated with
'London gin' at my own expense, I was as
forward as ever. In the afternoon I saw Horn-
blower, but I succeeded no better for that day
with him. He could do nothing for the first
two or three hours but tell me how glad he was
to see me, and stuff me with good things, and
he then took me through the streets till nearly
eight o'clock to show me the fine places. All
the time Clarinda was waiting at the coffee
house. The next morning he got me a very
comfortable lodging at a respectable house in
Hatton Gardens. We have a furnished room,
and a good sized dressing closet, where we keep
our bread and cheese, and our coals, &c., on the
fourth floor, for six shillings per week, and find
our own linen and crocks. Staying at the coffee
house was very expensive, but I was afraid of
going to strange lodgings, and am glad I did
not. We have got out of about 24s. since we
have been in London, though we have been as
careful as we could.

I can say nothing of how we are likely to
succeed at present, but I am in good spirits. We
were both so ill the first night after we got in

20 AN EMIGRANTS HOME LETTERS

that we could not get an hour's sleep, but are
much better.

I should very much like to have the dog, but
will write further about it in my next, if you
will be kind enough to keep him till then.

Send the remains of the things by the first
waggon. You had better put the brown paper
package in the rabbit pen, and be sure that the
boards are nailed do^vn on the top.

Your affectionate brother,
H. P.

Give my best love to my mother.

LETTER TWO.

London,
December 6th, 1838.

My Dear Sister,

I received tlie goods all safe, and was much
refreshed with your kind letter, and am in
rather better spirits than when I wrote last
to you, having obtained two or three little
orders, and promise of more; but things are
as flat as they can be here at present, and
my situation is anything but agreeable. I think,
however, of putting my lathe and things up as
soon as I can get them from the waggon office
(which I cannot do till I can turn the few made-
up goods I brought with me into money), and
begin to do the little work which I have got, in
hopes of getting more when that is done.

My expectations of London have met with

22 ^iV EMIGRANTS HOME LETTERS

disappointment in nearly every particular, but I
will not talk of that. You will remember that I
hinted to you that, in case I did not succeed in
London, I should go farther. I had almost for-
gotten that I ever had such thoughts, among
the fresh and astonishing scenes of this strange,
glorious place, till it seemed as if there was no
place for me among the countless multitude of
its inhabitants. My thoughts then returned to
emigration.

The information which we have obtained since
we have been here respecting Australia has
determined both Clarinda and myself to make
up our minds to emigrate to a land which holds
out prospects so bright and cheering to unhappy
Enorlishmen, thouo^h at the distance of sixteen
thousand miles. I have been to the GTovernment
emigration office to ascertain what assistance
they afford to mechanics wishing to emigrate,
and we can have a free passage, being young
and having no children. The first chartered
ship, I believe, will sail in March, and that
vessel, I trust, will convey us safe to Sydney.
In the meantime we have much to do, and I
must necessarily trouble you not a little. You
have ever been so kind to me, and have sacri-
ficed so much for my welfare, that I am ashamed

LETTER TWO 23

to ask you for fnrtlier assistance ; but I hope a
time ■will come wlien I shall have it in my power
to prove my gratitude.

In the first place, as I must have a certificate
of my being of good character, to procure a free
passage, I want Maria to obtain signatures to it.
The persons whom I have selected as the best to
sign it are : Rev. Greorge Cheatle, minister of
Lombard-street chapel ; Mr. B. Hudson, book-
seller. Bull-street ; Mr. R. Matthison, stationer,
Edgbaston-street ; and Mr. Pickard, ironmonger,
Bull-street. I am not very well kno'svn to any
of these, least of all to Mr. Cheatle ; but the
certificate must be signed by a clergyman or
minister, and he is the only person of that class
who can know anything of me, from living in his
own neighbourhood and being with Mr. Houldin,
a near neighbour of his, so long, and my brother
George and his wife attending his chapel. I
think he must know enough of me to justify him
in signing a paper of no more consequence. I
have written a letter to him, which you will
deliver, and allow him to read before you ask
him for his signature. All I know of Mr.
Pickard is having sold him goods, which I got
up in Birmingham, and bought of him. My
knowledge of Mr. Hudson, and his of me, is

24 AN EMIGRANTS HOME LETTERS

similar. To liim I have written a letter, too.
Mr. Matthison knows me rather better. To the
signatui'es of these gentlemen I should like to
have added those of Mr. Porter, surgeon, Broms-
grove-street, Mr. Wright, thread manufacturer,
Bromsgrove-sti'eet ; but as I am in debt to Mr.
Porter, and have been for a shameful long time,
perhaps you had better not apply to him. I
leave that to you. Mr. Wright, having been
in the habit of seeino; me more or less for so
many years, must be a fitter person to judge of
my character than any of the above. If you
can get the signatures of all six, I shall be ex-
tremely glad. The certificates which they are
to sign are marked at the top of leaf No. 2 and
No 4, and each signature should comprise name,
calling, and place of residence. For example :
B, Hudson, bookseller, Birmingham. The other
two certificates are to be signed by Mr. Houldin,
my late master, only. They are marked No. 1
and No. 3; get these signed first. And then
Clarinda must have a certificate, also — that
marked No. 5 to be signed by Mr. Joseph
Hardy, paper manufacturer. Great Hampton
Row, and No. 6 to be signed by Mr. Cheatle,
Chester-street, and Mr. Derrington, town mis-
sionary, next door but one or two to Garrison

LETTER TWO 25

Lane's Chapel. You will be kind enough to
explain to Mr. Cheatle — if you have any need
to do so — that the name was ' Varney ' at
the shop in Mosely-street ; also to the latter
gentleman, and that she was for seven years a
teacher in Garrison Lane's school. Be pleased
to have Mr. Cheatle's name first.

As we shall be about four months on our voy-
age, and as there is no washing allowed on board,
we must have at least fifteen changes of clothes,
&c., each, be they ever such poor ones. There-
fore the next thing I want is, if Eliza or my
mother can find time, and are able to do so,
for them to make some of these garments for
us, as fast as we can get them.

I must now speak of things more familiar.
First of all, of my little dog. If you, or someone
belonging to me, could keep him when I am
gone, I should be very glad, for that little,
unhappy animal seems a very part of my un-
happy heart. If he cannot be kept among you,
dispose of him in the best way you can. At any
rate be kind enough to keep him till I am gone.
With regard to the books, if you can sell any of
them or exchange any of them for cloth for
shirts, &c., I should be glad. ' Caleb Williams '
and the ' Works of Shakespeare ' I should like

26 AN EMIGRANT'S HOME LETTERS

for myself, but, of course, can do without tliem.
But secure enough to pay Mr. Anderson and to
pay the postage of letters from me.

I hope my father has some work to do — if he
is able to do it — and that my mother and Eliza
are as well as usual. Be sure to look at them
while they sign the papers, and see they do
not sign the wrong, Clarinda's being both on
the same leaf. Give our love to all. "We will
send you full particulars of our adopted country
before we go.

Yours,

H. PARKES.

December 7th.
P.S. — l^he money you sent will just do to get
the things from the waggon office, but there is
one thing that pains me in receiving it — the
thought of the injury which you must do your-
selves in being kind to me.

H. PARKES.

LETTER THREE.

December 7th, 1838.

My Dear Sistee,

When we received your kind parcel, I liad just
finished a long letter to you, from which you will
learn we have got on rather better since my last.
I was quite overpowered with the sense of
your kindness towards us when I saw the four
half-crowns, which came as seasonably as unex-
pectedly, for we had only fourpence left when
we received them. Money does not go very far
here, everything almost that we have to buy
being dearer than it was in Birmingham. Coal,
for instance, is Is. 6d. cwt., mutton lOd. a
pound, potatoes Is. a pound, and everything is of
an inferior quality. We had one piece of bacon
since we have been here, and it tasted like soap
and fish mixed. The water comes out of the
Thames, which all the filth of the town is emptied

28 AN EMIGRANTS HOME LETTERS

into. They say it is cleansed before it comes to
us, but all I know is that it is quite yellow. This
water we must drink, as it is, in tea or coffee ;
as for milk, that is quite out of the question,
none under 4d. per quart ; and beer as good as
the worst in Birmingham, so far as I can learn,
would be a novelty. Gin is all the ' go *
with the Cockneys. But I am comforted on this
score with the thought that I shall be far away
when the droughty weather comes. The fogs,
too, choke us. The cats (for there are six or
seven at the house where we lodge) make horrid
noises day and night, but perhaps all Cockneys
do not think it necessary to keep as many as the
old ladies where we lodge, so I will not call that
a London nuisance. I tell you these bits of
news merely to make you merry, for I feel half
merry myself.

I am in high hopes of Australia, as well I may
be when I compare my chance of living there
with my chance of doing so here ; but I cannot
give you much information now or I should be
up all night. The colony of New South Wales
is three times as large as England, Scotland,
Ireland, and Wales, and as beautiful a country
as this. The soil produces almost everything
which this produces, together with pomegranates^

LETTER THREE 29

oranges, lemons, figs, &c. Land can be bouglit
in some of the towns for seven pounds per acre,
in the second town in the colony for twenty
pounds, and in some parts of the country for five
shillings per acre. Mechanics can get foi^ty and
fifty shillings a week, and buy sugar for two
shillings a pound ; tea for two shillings ; beef,
twopence a pound ; wine, sixpence per bottle ;
rent, four shillings per week, Sydney, the
capital of the colony, contains 25,000 inhabitants.
However, my hopes are not extravagant, though
I make sure of getting rich and coming over
soon to fetch all of you. I had forgotten to say
the climate is the healthiest in the world.

I am very glad the dog gets on so well, and
hope you will be able to keep him for a play-
fellow for little Tom. I am very sorry they are
going to take my father's garden, but I wish he
was going with me to Australia, and he could
then buy a five shilling acre of land and make
another. And if you can persuade my mother
to live half a dozen years longer I would come
and fetch her too, and she should have a dairy ;
for cows are only four pounds each, the very
best.

Your affectionate brother,

HENRY PARKES.

LETTER FOUR.

London,
Deceviher 20th, 1838.

My Dear Sister,

I delayed acknowledging tlie receipt of the
parcel containing tlie papers, &c., till I liad
ascertained whetlier or not we could go out in
the ship which sails on the 29th. I did not get
a decisive answer till last Tuesday, when I was
told that the list of the Roxburgh Castle
was made up, and we could not go by her, there
being eight or ten parties which she could not
take besides us. The next ship which we may
get a free passage by sails on the 26th
March next year. I hope we shall go then.
Not going now has sadly disheartened us both,
but it may be for the best. In case I should

LETTER FOUR 31

not remind you again of it, all letters (wlienever
we go) should have time to reach, us two or three
days before the ship goes, as we must be on
board at least a day before she sails from
Gravesend, which is about twenty-six miles
from London.

I hope none of you are unhappy at the thought
of my leaving you, or will think much about me
when I am gone. However I may fare on the
opposite side of the globe, I do not think it can
much more darken my prospects of the future.
It is hard for me to think that I have seen my
dear father and mother, in all probability, for
the last time, but the thought is brightened by
the humiliating recollection that I have been
more a burden than a help to them, and the
hope that if we never meet again in this world
of change, we shall in a happier and changeless
one. Give my best love to them, and tell my
brothers to love them, and be more dutiful to
them than I have been, and give my love to my
sisters, Maria and Eliza. I wish you all a very
happy Christmas, though I shall not be with
you on that day. I shall think of you all a
thousand times in the solitude of our little room
in the heart of London, and I hope to spend
many a Christmas day with you, my brothers

32 AN EMIGRANT'S HOME LETTERS

and sisters^ tliougli noue of us may be then young.
Thank Maria for the trouble she has had in
getting the signatures, and for all she had done
for me. We should be happy to hear from James,
and hope he had got into something likely to do
him good. Clarinda wrote to her father this
week, but did not enclose it in this parcel, as it
seemed more desirable to save you trouble than
him expense. We are both blessed with good
health for this unhealthy place, except that
Clarinda has an ugly cold, and I have been
murdered with the toothache for two or three
days; but neither of us is happy. I have
nothing to do at present; hope I shall have
after Christmas.

I send a small book, which contains a great
deal of information on the subject of Emigration
to Australia, and part of a journal of a voyage
to Sydney ; also ' Campbell's Poems,' among
which are some beautiful * Lines on the Depar-
tui-e of Emigrants to New South Wales.' Be
pleased to take particular care of this volume,
and return it in the course of a month ; also a
very interesting book entitled ' Carwell,' out of
which you may pick a good deal of knowledge
relative to New South Wales, but you must read
it quick, and return it if you are sending a

LETTER FOUR 33

parcel next week, as it is a library book. The
other book you will be pleased to return also.

If I can get a regular job after Christmas till
we go I will send the money for my shoes by the
time appointed.

We have sent a few trifling things for you as
Xmas boxes. I wish we could have sent some-
thing better. For the present, farewell.

Yours,

H. PARKES.

LETTER FIVE.

December 31st, 1838.

My Dear Sister,

I have just received your parcel. Am sorry
my mother is so ill, and hope she will be much
better by when you get this. Am extremely
glad my father is well. Shall be very glad of
the seeds. Thought of writing to him before
we went away for some, but there is plenty of
time yet.

We are both in the enjoyment of health at
present, but we have fared but badly since
the date of my last, having been two or
three days without anything to eat, in-
cluding Christmas day, except that on that
day we were made to taste Miss Irvine's plum-
pudding and wine, which we were by no means

LETTER FIVE 35

unwilling to do. I tramped about London
Christmas Eve for five or six hours to sell some
work, but did not then succeed in doing so, nor
till the following Thursday, when I could only
get about half my price in Birmingham. Things
are here so extremely awkward. I tell these
things to you merely because I do not feel
justified in hiding any portion of the gloomy side
of the picture before me from so kind and dear
a friend as you have ever proved to me ; or if I
had another motive for doing so, it is because I
shall be able to look upon my distresses with
more fortitude when I know there are those,
though at a distance, who sympathise with me
in them. But believe me, I do not tell you of
my misery to make you miserable. Oh no ! I
hope you will not be more unhappy on my
account than if I was living in the most perfect
prosperity, though I wish your sympathy in
believing I do not deserve all I suffer.

I am glad the dog gets fat and forgetful of his
old master. I suppose he would have nothing
to do with me now. However, I wish the old
beggar a long life, and much of the good things
by the way, and an easy death at the end.

I am very thankful for your arrangements
respecting the clothes, and Clarinda's thanks to

36 AN EMIGE ANT'S HOME LETTERS

her Aunt, when you see her father again. I
shall not answer my brother's letter at present,
as I may have more to say before we go.

Any information which my father can give me
respecting the getting of land may be of use to
me till such time as he comes out to the 'land
of promise ' himself, which I shall depend on
his doing in a year or two; though he must
recollect that December and January are summer
months in New South Wales, and that they have
two harvests in a year. I send the Dispatch
newspaper, which contains part of a letter just
received from Sydney, and from an uninterested
party, which you will see is very encouraging to
emigrants. I feel confident James would do
exceedingly well there, but he must judge for
himself.

Your affectionate brother,
H. P.

P.S. — Give our love to our parents and
brothers and sisters, and Tom and the dog con-
jointly, as he is his bedfellow. Many thanks for
the pie. It was good !

Perhaps 1 shall not send you again under
three weeks or a month, on account of expense.

LETTER SIX.

January 1st, 1836.

My Dear Sister,

I am obliged to send to you again, so soon
upon my last letter, as I expect we shall embark
much earlier than I stated to you. A ship goes
on the 29th of this month, and I believe we shall
go in that. My chief reason for writing now
is that we must have a certificate of being in
sound health from a respectable medical man. I
send a form of one on this sheet. You will be
pleased to get Mr. Porter, or if he has left the
town, Mr. Charles Porter, to sign it, since I
never had any other medical attendant, and the
gentleman who attended Clarinda has left the
country, so that it is impossible to apply to him.

38 AN EMIGRANTS HOME LETTERS

All that it affirms lie could readily ascertain by
applying to Mr. Houldin and Clarinda's friends.
If you can possibly get all the signatures by
Thursday afternoon send them in a parcel to
me the same evening. Take it to the Albion
coach office early enough, say four or five o'clock,
so that I shall be sure to get them at the office
here the next morning. I would rather have
the certificates in Mr. Porter's own writing. I
only have written this that it may be something
like the prescribed printed form of the Govern-
ment emigration committee, but the one I send
will do.

The clothes can be made up on the passage.
If you can exchange any of the books for cloth
iOr them, or stockings that would do for either
of us, or four or five handkerchiefs, you will
befriend us. If Booker would make my shoes,
and you think you could pay him in two months
after I am gone, I should be very glad to have
them.

I shall write to my father, to Eliza, and to my
brothers before I go. I think you will hear from
us if we go this month about next October, but
not before. I shall send to you once or twice
before we go.

Clarinda will want half a pound of white

LETTER SIX 39

cotton and shirt buttons, if you can exchange
books for them. Give our best love to all friends.

Your affectionate brother,

H. PARKES.

LETTER SEVEN.

London,
January 28th, 1839.

My Dear Sistee,

This letter, I hope, will find you all well at
Birmingham. Clarinda and myself are neither
one thing or another. I have at last obtained
a situation in one of the oldest and largest turn-
ing manufactories in London. I have been there
two weeks to-morrow. The work which I am upon
is so heavy that it almost masters me — having
to turn twine boxes (such as you see on trades-
men's counters), which take 2 cwt. of wood to
one dozen. I think we are certain to leave the
country in March, but shall know more about it
next week. We shall have a hard struggle till
then, but I hope we shall be able to get through
it. I have been obliged to part with many of

LETTER SEVEN 41

my tools since Xmas, to buy us bread, as we
cannot live in London for less than 20s. per
week, including rent ; but I hope I shall be able
to get as many in their place as will enable me
to carry on the turning at Sydney. If you have
the calico, please to send it for Clarinda to work
upon, and let me hear from you as soon as you
can, as we are very anxious to learn how my
father and mother and all of you are. I am
sorry I have no money to send for the shoes at
present. Please to let Thomas take the small
parcel to Mr. Knott's, Swan Hotel Yard — need
not wait for answer. More in my next.

Yours affectionately,

H. PARKES.
Our love to all.

LETTER EIGHT.

London,
February 10th, 1839.

My Dear Sister,

We received your letter dated January 27 on
February 1st. We were glad to hear from you
— it seemed so long since your last. Were ex-
tremely sorry, but not surprised, to hear of dear
mother being so ill. I hope she is now restored to
her usual health. We were much hurt by your
account of the unfavourable circumstances at-
tendant on Maria's journey, and sincerely hope
she is perfectly recovered from her distressing
illness. We hope, too, that by this time your
own severe cold ' has had its day and been for-
gotten.' We ourselves are both rather poorly.

I have not been able to see Bell's Life, but
tell my father that my high hopes are undimini-

LETTER EIGHT 43

shed ; tliat I have no doubt of being happy and
prosperous in Australia. And I have much
better opportunities of getting correct informa-
tion on the subject here than you in Birmingham
can have. With respect to the tales of private
individuals^ they in general are altogether un-
worthy of attention. There is a person lodging
in the house where we live, who has been to
Sydney. And there was a surgeon's family in
the rooms under ours, when we came, who went
out at their own expense last month ; but we
never asked a single question of either party.
A girl that was apprenticed to Miss Irvine went
out to New South Wales some years ago. She
returned to England about four years ago, the
wife of a celebrated missionary. She made
Miss Irvine's her home during her stay in Lon-
don. After laying out several hundreds of
pounds in expensive articles of furniture she
went back again to New South Wales, more
glad again to leave than she was when she ar-
rived in her native country. So you see we
could obtain some news about Australia without
going far afield, but we can go to sources so
much superior that it would be waste of time
to do so. That an ^official' account should
appear in the True Sun, or any other paper.

44 AN EMIGRANTS HOME LETTERS

to discourage persons from emigrating, quite
puzzles me. If it is meant by ' official ' tliat
it issues from the Colonial Government, when it
is the Colonial Government that is paying for
the passage of the hundreds of emigrants who
are continually being sent out, not only from
England, Scotland, and Ireland, but from France,
Italy, and other places on the Continent, I
think Mr. J. Yarney must have been mistaken,
if the report he saw was concerning New South
Wales, as to the ' officialness ' of its character.
However, he is not likely to be injured by going
to Australia ; for assuredly no man will reach
there who falls back at the first, or the hun-
dredth, evil report he hears concerning the
country.

I think leaving Birmingham was the best
step we ever took, and I think leaving London
will be the next best. We have suffered a great
deal since we have been in London. Were
obliged to pawn almost everything we had
before I could get anything to do. I had some
difficulty in obtaining my present situation. The
reason they took me in was this : they had but
one man in the manufactory who would under-
take the work which I am upon, it is so ex-
cessively heavy, and he would rather have

LETTER EIGHT 45

nothing to do witli it ; so they offered me a trial
at this hard job, though, as I came from the
country, they seemed to doubt whether I should
be able to manage it, as it is also rather a difficult
job ; but the}^ say now that I am quite an adept
at it, and I believe they would rather I stayed
with them than went to Australia. We were
also a little behind with our rent. I can get,
by working hard, about five or six shillings a
day, but have not been able to make near full
time, owing to having to go to the emigration
office, and one thing and another. It is a very
difficult thing to get a free passage. They would
not even let me leave my certificates till last
Monday, though I tendered them time after
time. They would not give me a passage at
first, because I was a turner, as persons of such
a trade as mine must, when they get to Sydney,
work on their own account. They take it for
granted that persons who are taken out free of
expense have not the means to do otherwise.
There are crowds of applicants every day at
the emigration office for them to choose out of,
and they keep them back and put them off from
time to time, very vexatiously, it seems to me,
to try whether they are really anxious and re-
solved upon going, lest persons should go out

46 ^.V EMIGRANTS HOME LETTERS

of a mere capricious love of change. They will
not take anybody who has a young and helpless
family, except such mechanics as carpenters^
masons, smiths, shoemakers, etc., etc., who will
be sure to earn enough to provide for them
when they get there. Agricultural labourers
cannot earn so much, therefore they are scrupu-
lous at taking such of this class as emigrants as
have families, and they will endeavour to as-
certain whether you can pay for your passage
yourself before they will agree to take you.
Mr. Marshall told me, when I was speaking
about James, that he must pay for his boy him-
self; if it is so, the child's passage will cost £8,
but I hope they will yet agree to take him free.
We shall see when they have the certificates.
My plan is, if I get tools again to take out
with me, to get a job at farm work or anything
else that offers itself till I can save money
enough to begin to work on my own account,
unless something better should turn out for me.
If I cannot take tools with me I must wait till
I can obtain them from England, as I do not
expect they can be procured nearer, which will
be a monstrous calamity. It is said that a few
turners might work profitably on their own
account at Sydney. Still, however, I think it

LETTER EIGHT 47

is not improbable that I may get hold of some-
thing better. The country is the best place for
making money, A man of good common sense
and active habits^ if he can but save a little to
begin with, may get rich there in no time. I
have no doubt of James getting on. I think he
will have a better chance than I shall ; at any
rate at first. But persons going to a strange
country, where everyone is taught only to take
care of himself, and going there friendless and
without money, must expect to meet with difii-
culties, and to suffer privations and hardships.
If I do not meet with such I shall indeed be
disappointed.

Do not be at the expense of sending the two
books, or anything- else that we can do without,
as instead of being able to send you any money
for what you have already done for us, I find
from a calculation which I have made that I shall
be £4 short, unless something unforeseen turns
out in getting the tools, which I ought by no
means to omit taking with me. I shall be sure
to go from England penniless, but I have some
hope of getting something to do on the ship, at
which I may earn a pound or two during our
voyage, and if I can do so, it may be of the
greatest use to us when we arrive at Sydney. I

48 AN EMIGRANTS HOME LETTERS

suppose we are sure to go next month. Tlie ship
Lady Raffles, which leaves Gravesend on 27th
of March, finally leaves Plymouth on the 8th
April, If we go in her everything should be
here by this day six weeks at the latest.

If James and his wife have linen to last them
for a month, Clarinda and Anne can make the
other on the voyage, but they must bring the
cloth ready washed. James will have no time
to lose. Tell him, and also John Varney, if you
see him again, the substance of this letter as far
as relates to emigration.

You will see an interesting account of the
effects of transportation on society in New South
Wales in the number of Chamhers' Edinburgh
Journal sent.

We have paid our rent out of the money which
we made of the woodwork of the lathe, and other
things brought from Birmingham. We could
not take them with us.

I send the paper which you had before, for
you to keep for anyone to see who thinks of
following us. Also a small pamphlet, which you
can keep for the same purpose.

Your affectionate brother,

HENRY PARKES.

LETTER EIGHT 49

P.S. — Give our sincere and united love to our
beloved father^ and motlier^ and to Maria, Eliza,
James and family, George and wife, Thomas,
dog, cat, and all. Tell my mother I am only
unhappy when I think of her.

LETTER NINE.

London,
February 12th, 1839.

My Deae Sister,

Among other tilings, we must get you or
Maria, some time before your last parcel, to go
to Edgbaston cliurcli and obtain two certificates
of our marriage. They will cost a shilling each.
You must ask of the sexton, or beadle, for Mr.
Harrison, the clerk. The best time, I think,
would be on a Monday morning, between nine
and ten o'clock, or Sunday morningbef ore service.
Perhaps the latter time would be the best.

Tell James if he should want to buy any shoes
before he goes that he can get them cheapest in
London.

Yours,

H. PARKES.

LETTER TEN.

London,
March 1st, 1839.

My Deae Sister,

We received your last parcel on Sunday, and
were very much rejoiced to learn that father and
mother were then both better.

I am rather unwell, and unable to stick to my
work as closely as I ought to do. The consequence
of which, together with having to lose time for
other purposes, is that I do not earn more than
it just takes to keep us. This week I shall not
earn sufficient. I have had a slight cough ever
since I have been in London, which comes upon
me chiefly at night, and is worse now than it
ever has been. I also have a kind of soreness
and stiffness at my chest, and can get no com-
fortable sleep. I verily believe I have not had

52 AN EMIGRANT'S HOME LETTERS

a good ni gilt's rest since I have been up here.
What sleep I do get seems to oppress me more
than refresh me, and is very broken* Being pent
in a frowsy London garret, with no one to speak
to, not even a dog, and breathing the same
impure air from week's end to week's end, has
made Clarinda very poorly, and half unhappy.
Nevertheless, tell my father and mother and
all who enquire after us that we are well and
happy, as I believe we both shall be when we
leave this irksome place.

I shall not write more than one other letter to
you before we go, and that on the last day
before we join the ship, because of the expense,
so I shall endeavour to say all I have to say in
this. I have strong hopes of getting a good
situation as soon as I arrive at Sydney, as all who
have hitherto gone out in Mr. Marshall's ships
have been engaged within a week of the time of
landing, and if I get a situation at £50 or £60
per year and provisions and a house to live in, I
shall be able to send some money home in a
year and a half from the present time, and
enough soon to pay all I owe at Birmingham.
And that will be a happy time with me. I shall
write to you by the first homeward boiind vessel
we meet after we have been out eight or ten

LETTEB TEN 53

weeks, so you may expect to hear from us in about
six months, and again at the end of m year. And
T hope I shall he able to tell you how I like New
South Wales. I wish Maria could come up to
London before we go, for I should dearly like to
look upon some one of you again, but I know it
cannot be, and blame myself for naming it.

With respect to the likeness, I would rather
no more was said abovit it, as I am unable, how-
ever cheaply it was done, to be at the expense,
and I am most unwilling you should be, but I
leave the matter with you. If things were not
so very awkward I should dearly like for you to
have both mine and Clarinda's. Yon may get
a portrait, a pretty good likeness, for about six or
seven shillings. I do not mean one of those
black profiles.

I must now conclude with many thanks and
good wishes.

Give our sincere love to all.

Yours,

H. PARKES.

LETTER ELEVEN.

LONDOX,

February 13th, 1SS9.

My Dear Sister,

I am quite out of patience to receive James's
certificates, as there is now not a minute's time for
him to lose if he is to go on the 27th of next month.
When I wrote the letter which you receive with
this I was surprised I had not heard from him,
but made sure I should hear in a day or two, or
[ should have sent it off then, requesting him to
send me the papers immediately. I am very
unwilling to trouble you before I hear, but dare
not delay any longer, lest you should not have
received my last parcel safe. If by chance you
have not done so, let James have directly the
printed emigration paper, which you will find in
the present parcel. He will find a foi-m of

LETTER ELEVEN 55

certificate on the second page of it, and can get
the clergyman or some other gentleman at
Yardley to write him a certificate from it, stating
explicitly what he is competent of doing, etc.,
etc., and get it signed as respectably as he can,
and as soon as possible, and send it to me,
together with a certificate of his marriage, and
one of yonng William's age.

If you should have sent to me before you
receive this, when I get hold of the papers I
will lose no time in going to the ofiice, and will
write vou asuin about the middle of next week.

The last parcel I sent off about a fortnight
ago.

I have not much more time, nor have I much
more to say at present. Give our sincere love to
all our friends, and may God bless you all now
and for ever.

Yours,

H. PARKES.

LETTER TWELVE.

London,
February 17th, 1839.

My Dear Sister,

We received your last parcel on Friday after-
noon, and were botli very sorry to hear of poor
father's misfortune, and sincerely hope he is now
recovering, and that you will be able to inform
us in your next that he is quite out of danger.
We hope that poor mother is also much better,
though we know too surely that her allotted
portion in this distressful world will be little else
than pain and bitterness. This we know, alas !
and have not the power to assuage one single
sorrow that oppresses her. But her time here
is short. We feel it is so, and that we shall never
again behold that careworn countenance, which
no transient light but that of the love she felt

LETTER TWELVE 57

for her children ever softened into a liappy
look. Poor dear mother ! How good a mother
she has been to me ! How glad when I have
been successful in any little undertaking ! How
desirous to help me when I have been in any
little difficulty ! Oh ! how happy I have been
in that little old home in Moseley-street, after
my day's work was done at the brickyard, as I
have sat by the fire in my clayey clothes, and
she took my hand and held it in her's, and told
me parts of Robinson Crusoe to while away the
dull hours till you came home from Attsop's.
Yes, I was happy then, though dear father was
lying in a distant debtor's prison.

Beloved father and mother, I feel as if they
were already in their graves. A father and
mother bowed down with years of affliction, and
steeped in poverty and wretchedness. The very
thought seems to make me unhappy for ever,
when I know that half the circumference of the
globe will shortly lie between us. Farewell, my
father and mother, my fond affectionate parents.
God Almighty bless them, and provide for their
few remaining" years better than I can hope they
will be pi'ovided for. May they be daily sur-
prised with comforts, and may floods of unex-
pected joy continually descend into their hearts.

58 AN EMIGHANTS HOJIK LETTF.BS

Another letter, and another, antl perhaps
another, and then my next letter will be dated
on the l)lue, wide ocean, where I can have no
answer — and then more than a long weary year
must pass away before I can hear from you
again. Yes, my beloved sister, I shall soon
leave you, even as you come to me in your
affectionate letters. The very name of Bir-
mingham will no longer meet my eye, except
when I unconsciously write it on some part of
the ship that bears me over the beaming waters,
or on some gloomy tree in the wilderness of
Australia. I shall hear no more of Birmingham
except from my own tongue, or from my weep-
ing wife's, Avhen we think of those dear friends
who live there, and of those angel-infants of our
own, who sleep there in their little graves. And
when I do hear from you again, will it be of
death ? Alas ! my forebodings are very painful.
Still, I hope it will be far othei-wise. I hope,
though I hope with trembling, that I shall hear
of your being happier, far happier, than when I
leave you.

If we go alone (and they will not take my
brother unless he can pay for his son's passage),
the thought of you will be all we shall have to
relieve us from our loneliness, and that thought

LKTTEB TWELVE 5;)

will be mingled with tJie last of our lives, should
we meet with a watery grave.

Your affectionate brother,

HENRY PARKES.

P.S. — 1 suppose we shall be certain to go in
the Lady Rafies, March 27th, as Mr. Marshall
has promised to take us. She is a ver}'' fine
ship, 1000 tons burden, frive our sincere love
to our parents, and to all.

LETTER THIRTEEN.

London,
February 18, 1839.

My Dear Father,

My sister, in a letter which i received last
Friday, informed me of your sudden and alarm-
ing illness; but I hope you are now much better,
and trust that I shall learn from her next letter
that you are safel}^ restored to your former state
of health. I had the pain of learning from the
same letter of the increased illness of my poor
mother. This did not surprise me, but I sin-
cerely hope I shall be surprised the next time I
hear from yini by the assurance of her being
more comfortable and happy. He Avho, in His
wisdom and chastening^ love, has so lona* and so
heavily afflicted my beloved mother, and who
now has brought you, my dear father, to the

LETTER THIRTEEN (il

very door of death — He, and only He, can sup-
port you both in your trials and distresses, and
I trust He will. I sincerely hope that the Father
of all mercies, in the exercise of his unbounded
goodness, will provide for you in your last days,
and bless you as you descend into the grave.
And when I can no longer, or but seldom, hear
how you fare in this world of trouble, you may
be far happier than I ever knew you. Trusting
that I shall soon hear that both of yon are much
better, I remain, my dear father.

Your affectionate son,

HENRY PARKES.

Accept, dear parents, the united love of
Clarinda and myself.

LETTER FOURTEEN.

London,
March 10th, 1839.

My Dear Sister,

We received your last on Friday afternoon,
and were very glad to hear that all were then so
well. Hope my dear mother will continue so,
and that my father is quite recovered. I am
afraid they must be suffering very much in con-
sequence of my father not being alile to Avork.
It also grieves me to think how much you must
be injuring yourself to assist me.

With respect to my brother James and his
going to Australia, I believe he has never yet
thought deeply enough on so great an under-
taking: as that of removing^ to the distance of
sixteen thousand miles. The distance is tre-
mendous, when the globe itself is but twenty-

LETTER FOURTEEN 63

four thousand miles round, and 1 think he has
got hold of the notion which many persons have,
that Government is glad to get anyone willing
to go — as if they only sought the pleasuie of
paying £40 or £50 to enable one and another
family, whom they know nothing of, to remove
from this country to New South Wales ! The
funds for the purpose of free emigration are
raised only from the sale of land in the colon}'^,
and, therefoi-e, anyone may know it must he hut
limited. There are only six or seven ships going
in the course of the present year from London
which take out emigrants free of expense, '^lliese
ships are far superior to any other that go to
Sydney, and always sail on the appointed <lays,
consequently more persons who pay their own
passage will go out in these ships than in any
other; so that only a few, to make up the ship's
number, go out free, perhaps not more than four
or five families in a ship on an average, for it is
not likely that they will take persons at the
expense of Government if others will go at their
own expense. Mr. Marshall ottered to take
James at the payment of £9 for William. He
and his wife and child would have been taken
sixteen thousand miles, and wholly provided for
during the voyage for less than eleven shillings

64 AN EMIGRANTS E03IE LETTERS

per week, saying lie was sixteen weeks on the
voyage. It will cost him a deal more than that
to live at home during the time, and suppose he
has no work, or very little ! It seems strange
to me that he could not find the money, but it is
too late to talk of this now.

One certificate of marriage will do if j^ou have
not already obtained them. Please send the
broken saAvs and old pattern cards as they are.
The hand-saw from Atkin's should be about 27
inches from the handle. I think that is about
the size, but am not certain. I should very
much like to take with me a carpenter's brace
and bits, as I feel certain it would be of immense
use to me, but am afraid I shall not be able to
do so. However, I shall be obliged to you if
you will ascertain the price (as all such things
are much dearer in London than with you), and
send me word in your next. Mr. Edmonds^ in
the Horse Fair, opposite Thorpe-street, Avhom,
you will remember, I did some work for about
two years ago, is a maker of them. I believe
there are 36 bits to the brace. You will only
have the trouble of delivering the note directed
to him, and waiting an answer. I shall send my
last parcel the latter end of this week, and if I
can have it I will send the money then.

LETTER FOURTEEN 65

Ask my fathei' to be pleased to write to me,
if it is only two oi' three lines, in your next. I
shall write to Cleorge, to Eliza, and to Tom, in
my last parcel.

Yours trul}',

H. PARKES.

LETTER FIFTEEN.

London,
March W, 183!J.

My Dear Sister,

I received your kind letter but I know not
how to answer it. Mv heart feels bursting' with
gratitude to you all. I can only thank you now,
but may I live to see the happy day when we
shall get all of you who are willing to Australia.
I will then try to show you how thankful I am.
My Henry is too bad to sa}'^ I am unhappy. T
shall never be uuhapp}^ while 1 have him to
make me happy. But I have been very uneasy
about my father. I was afraid I should not even
get a letter from him, and the shilling was more
than I expected. You have only seen a specimen
of what he has been to me for the last ten or
twelve years. But he is my father, and I do

LETTER FIFTEEN 67

love liim; you can, therefore, guess what I have
felt. I thank you for asking him to send me
something, but do not ask him again. It must
be so unpleasant to yourself. I feel more happy
now that I have heard from him. I am in very
good spirits, and though I am a little ill
sometimes, I think I am stronger than I used

to be I am very glad we are

going, for I believe if we were to stay in London
it would kill Henry outright in a short time.
Thank my sister Maria for the dress ; I like it
very much. . . . Give my love to Thomas,
I often think how he will be altered when
we see him again, and to poor mother, too. We
often think of her and weep. I am glad the
dog will not let anyone hurt Maria. I hope he
will take the same care of all of you. Give my
love to dear father and mother, and then a long
farewell, and may God bless you till we meet
again.

Your affectionate sister,

CLARINDA PARKES.

P.S. — My father is under a mistake about my
Uncle Taylor. He is at Hobart's Town in Van
Diemen's Land. We shall go six thousand
miles beyond there.

68 AN EBIIGRANTS HOME LETTERS

P.S. by H. P. — My good lady has made a bit
of a mistake in this last statement. Hobart's
Town is not very many days from Sydney.

Note. — I have given only extracts from this letter, as it
refers mainly to things vrhich her sisters-in-law offered to
provide for my mother during the voyage. The letter has
pinned to it the following note from Maria Parkes : — ' The
one shilling named was obtained from Mr. Varney, by my
sister Sarah, after two hours' hard talking to him on behalf
of his daughter, — M.P.'

A. T. P

LETTER SIXTEEN.

London,
March 17th, 1839.

My Dear Sisters,

We received your parcel tliis afternoon, and
were quite surprised witli the heap of things you
have sent. I fear you are suffering very much
yourselves by helping us so greatly. I am very
sorry you had to pay so much for the certificates.
The sovereign which Clarinda's aunt sent came
very well-timed, or we should have had to leave
some of our things in pawn, as I was unable to
earn much at work last week. Cannot have the
brace now, but never mind about it. Keep the
paper, as I shall very likely send for some tools
when I send to you from Sydney. Am sorry you
have had so much trouble to no purpose. Am
extremely thankful to you for everything. T

70 AN EMIGRANT'S HOME LETTERS

could not have gone if it had not been for you.
Could not even have come from Birmingham if
it had not been for you, but I trust I shall soon
be able to repay you. Please to let Thomas put
the note so directed into the editor's box of the
Journal office. There are some verses of mine
in The Charter newspaper of this day (17th), and
I expect more will be in the next two or three
numbers ; the price is sixpence. Please to send
me a Journal of next Saturday by post as soon
as it is out.

I like all the things very much. I am very
anxious now to get off. I think we shall be sure
to earn a little money on the voyage some way
or other. If I get a situation I will obtain £10
and send with my first letter from Sydney.

Will write a farewell to you last thing, as
much as a sheet of paper will hold. Have no

more time now.

Yours truly,

H. PARKES.

Give my love and Clarinda's to my dear father
and mother.

LETTER SEVENTEEN.

London,
Sunday, March 24th.

My Dear Sister,

Once more, and for the last time in England,
I thank you for your unspeakable kindness. I
go witli a liappy heart, in hope of rendering
you assistance in future. Tell my dear father I
"was never more surprised than when we received
the £1 from him, knowing the sacrifice he must
have made to send it ; but this only rendered it
more valuable to us, and us more gr^keful to him.

Tell my dear mother the "v^ill be kept

by us as long as we live in remembr .nee of her.
Thank father for the garden seeMS. I have
bought half a pint of the best sorts of marrow-
fat peas, also half a pint of scarlet runners, and
some fine carrot seed, and tell him I know how

72 AN EMIGRANTS HOME LETTERS

to plant tliem all. I do hope tliat he will see
my garden if I have one^ but do not tell him so
now on account of his and poor mother's feel-
ings. Would that I could hope to see them and
all of you again ; but if things should turn out
well I hope we shall be able to send for you,
Maria^ and Thomas, and then if my dear father
is living, and we should find the climate likely
to agree with him, I hope he will come and end
his days in peace and happiness with us all.

Your brother has got quite into favour here.
He is quite idolized by the old ladies where we
live, and he is called 'a poet' by The Charter
of yesterday. He has had no end of presents
from people whom he has not known many
months. One old gentleman made him a pre-
sent of an ivory tablet, a set of reading books,
and a shoe-lift, and paper knife, worth twelve
or fourteen shillings. Another made him a
present of a very handsome rule and several
other things. You will see what The Charter
of yesterday says in Answers to Correspon-
dents relative to his song in the week's before.
Should we not like to hear his song sung by
some great man at some public dinner ! but we
bid ^farewell' to England and he shall write
songs in his bark hut in Australia. Has not my

LETTER SEVENTEEN 73

father's wife been kind^ never to send me the
least thing in the world, and yet she thinks
she is entitled to the name of 'mother/ but I
think she does not act 'mother-like! '

I have seen the fine park and the Queen's
palace and the Queen's carriage, but they are
not, all of them, worth a fig to see. The park,
crowded with people like a fair, the palace,
guarded everywhere with soldiers with their
bayonets fixed ; 1 would rather walk in a rural
lane than in such places, where you can go so
far and no farther, without being stopped by a
soldier with a bayonet in his hand. There are
fine seats under the trees for people to sit upon ;
but there are also great cannons stuck all about,
and policemen here, there, and everywhere.

I like not the grandeur and misery of this

great place, and picture to myself more beauty

and happiness even on the wide, wide ocean, on

which I shall soon be. The next time I write I

will tell you all the wonders I see there. Till

then, a long, long farewell. Give my love to

mother, father, brothers, sisters and nephew.

Yours,

CLARINDA PARKES.

Note. — The relatives mentioned in thia letter by my
mother are all her husband's relations.

A. T. P.

LETTER EIGHTEEN.

London,
March 25th, 1839.

My Dear Sister,

We received your last kind parcel this after-
noon. We received the other two both together
last Wednesday, all safe. We are glad that
you are all still pretty well at Birmingham. I
am about as I have been for the last month or
two. Clarinda is very unwell. She went to a
physician to-day, who prescribed her some
medicine, which she has got from the druggist's.
I trust she will soon be better. We are both,
notwithstanding this, in good spirits, and much
happier than we have been. The saw, I think,
is a prime one. My ^Farewell' will appear in
the Village Magazine for next month (Tyas,
Cheapside). Hornblower works on it, and has

LETTER EIGHTEEN 75

struck me off a few copies^ some of which I send
to you. You will see that the editor of the
journal has sadly mutilated it, but I do not
think he has altered it for the 'worser.'

With respect to my brothers, I hope they
have no unkind feelings towards me. I know
no reason why they should, and I trust they
have not. I love them both and I sincerely
wish they may possess all the happiness this life
can afford. And now with respect to the por-
trait. I had not a shilling left this morning,
except the 7s. you sent to pay for it, just enough
to take us to Gravesend, therefore I think you
will not blame me for not applying the money
to the purpose you intended, as I had none to
pay the dock charges on my baggage when I
got to Grravesend. My boxes were put on board
in London last Friday. It was a misunderstand-
ing of mine that I should have to go to Graves-
end with the baggage. The ship lay in the
London Dock till within this last day or two. I
do not think it will be practicable to write again
before I arrive at the Cape of Good Hope. I
am not sure of landing at Plymouth, as the ship
will be out at anchor, so that I should have to
go on shore by a boat, which, of course, I should
have to pay for.

76 AN EMIGRANTS II03IE LETTERS

Tuesday morning, six o'cloclc.
March 26th.

We shall be on our way down the river to join
the ship at Gravesend now in an hour or two.
Clarinda is rather better this morning than
yesterday. We shall sail to-morrow^ but may
be six or seven days before we get round the
coast to Plymouth, if we have unfavourable
winds, and we may get there in two days.
You may expect to hear from us in about four
months, and again in about a year. The name
of the ship is Strathjieldsaye — a queer name, is
it not ? We have every prospect of a good
voyage. I would have had the portrait done
when I received your parcel yesterday afternoon,
but there was not time, so I hope you will pardon
my not doing so. Some of the men at the manu-
factory have made me little presents, when
leaving them, altogether to the amount of more
than one pound — not in money, you know —
but little articles of their own making, includ-
ing a very beautiful ivory pocket tablet.

I hope you will enjoy health and unlocked for
prosperity till you hear from me again, and till
I hear from you, I have not much more time
now. If any of you should ever have to come

LETTER EIGHTEEN 77

to London jou cannot do better than to get
lodging, if you can, at our liouse in Kirby-street,
but I will give you another address, in case
Irvines should be gone away : Mr. Stentake,
tailor. Red Lion Court, Charter House Lane. This
is where Hornblower lodges^ and they seem to be
very decent people — a sort by no means very
common in London. Kirby-street, Hatton Gar-
den, is a very respectable street, but London is
such that the next street to it is full of thieves,
Jews, and evil persons. The name of it is Field-
lane. You will remember this if you should
ever read ' Oliver Twist.' I must now conclude.
May God bless you, my dear, dear sister. You
will look out for the news from sea, to learn
whether we arrive safe. And should we never
meet again in this world, may we meet in a
better, and should you never hear from me
again, may God reward you for all you have
done for me. Farewell.

Yours most affectionately,

H. PARKES.

LETTER NINETEEN.

LoNDONj

March 26th, 1839.

My Deae Fathek,

I thank you for the seeds, and for the sovereign
you sent me. I am afraid you must have put
yourself to great inconvenience to send me the
money. I hope I shall soon be able to return it
tenfold.

We shall soon be gone now. In two or three
hours we shall be on the river, and in a few days
we shall be on the open sea. I shall often read
your kind letter on the Atlantic and Indian
Oceans, and think of you and my poor beloved
mother. I again thank you most sincerely, and
must now wish you farewell. Farewell, beloved
parents, farewell.

Your affectionate son,

H. PARKES.

Give my love to my dear, dear mother, and
Clarinda's love to her and to all.

LETTER TWENTY.

On Board the Strathjieldsaye,
Lying off Plymouth^

3Iarch 31st, 1839.

My Dear Sister,

We came to anchor here this morning about
eight o'clock, and I lose no time in writing to
you. I had not time to take my last (dated
March 26th, the day we left London) to the
coach office. Left it with Hornblower. Hope
you have received it safe. The following is some
account of our voyage thus far.

Tuesday, March 26th. — Left London half-past
ten o'clock. Were but just in time for the
steamer to Gravesend about one o'clock. Went
in a small boat to the ship at the distance of about
one mile. The hole allotted to steerage pas-
sengers had a most miserable appearance at first.

80 AN EMIGRANTS HOME LETTERS

Wednesday, March 27th. — ^Lef t Gravesend this
morning between ten and eleven o'clock. Came
to anclior for the night in three or four hours,
about five miles below the Nore. All confusion
on board these two days,

Thursday, March 28th. — The anchor heaved
just before I got up. Went on deck about six
o'clock. A beautiful clear morning. Went
along very delightfully, with a good deal of sail
set. Past Margate just before one o'clock. The
sky now began to get cloudy. About two o'clock
a sudden squall of wind with a sharp storm of
hail caught us, and put us all in confusion and
fright. We were now opposite Ramsgate. The
weather continued rainy and bad the remainder
of the afternoon. Came to anchor in the Downs
about six o'clock, a little distance from shore,
opposite Deal.

Friday, March 29th. — Got the anchor up at
ten o'clock this morning. Went along merrily
with a good wind very near shore. The line of
coast from Deal to the white cliifs of Dover
presented many pleasant views. In sight of
Dover Castle about twelve o'clock. A delightful
view of Dover and Shakespeare's cliff. Saw the
coast of France on the opposite side of the
channel for about three hours. Very little sun

LETTER TWENTY 81

to-day, but a good breeze. Went on deck soon
after seven o'clock at night. The round yellow
moon shone out from under a ridge of dark
clouds upon the wide, foaming waters deliciously.
Still going along rapidly ; only one other vessel
in sight.

Saturday, March 30th. — This morning at day-
light off the Isle of Wight. In sight of it for
about two hours. Been dashing along gallantly
all night. Myself very sick, obliged to lie down.
As I lay on the bare boards of my berth, with
my rolled-up bed under my head, in a hole only
just roomy enough to hold the number of its
inhabitants touching each other, I sought relief
from my miserable sensations by thinking of
those I had left behind, or anything that could
distract my attention from the scene around me.
I crept upon deck at 12 o'clock. The scene
there was truly magnificent. As we rose and
sank over the tumultuous waves of the Ensrlish
Channel I could not help repeating the beautiful
lines of Campbell :

' Our march is on the mountain wave,
Our home is on the deep.'

Sunday, March 31st. — Came to anchor, after
tacking about all night, at Plymouth. Thei'e is
a Mr. Walker, from Newbold, Warwickshire, a

82 AN EMIGRANTS HOME LETTERS

cabin passenger, and some men whom he has
engaged in the steerage. There is also a Mr.
Badham, from Birmingham. And there are
many farm labourers from Sussex in the steer-
age— a very rude set. There are some Irishmen
and some Scotchmen. Some of the steerage
passengers, I believe, are going to leave us at
Plymouth, among them a young foppish Jew
from London, heartily tired of the journey
already. Clarinda is rather better, perhaps, than
when we left London. Our love to all. Hope
all are well. If you write, do so immediately.
Do try to send us two or three little things to
take with us. I do think I shall die on sea
biscuit and salt beef before I get to Sydney.
Your affectionate brother,

H. PARKES.

LETTER TWENTY-ONE.

Plymouth Sound,

April 7th, 1839.

My Beloved Sister,

Mr. Marshall's clerk brought your letter on
board this morning. It rejoices Clarinda and
myself to learn from it that all of you are still
pretty well in health. I was very glad of the
money. Had three half-pence when I received
it, and no more. Am a great deal better than
when I wrote my last. Clarinda also is a great
deal better.

We fare very well, considering all things, on
board the Strathjieldsaye, but the steerage of
an emigrant ship is of necessity a most miser-
ably uncomfortable place to me. I am more
solitary and companionless than I ever was in all
my life in this stagnant crowd of human beings.
Some of them are of the most indecent and
brutish description. My hopes of ultimate
success are as good as ever, and it is worth

F 83

84 AN EMIGRANTS HOME LETTERS

somethins: to endure the disao-reeableness of the
next four months.

Now for a bit of description of our residence.
The large hold of the ship, where the goods gene-
rally are stored, is divided in about the middle
by a deal partition. The apartment towards
the forecastle, or front of the ship, is allotted to
the male steerage passengers; the other, towards
the cabins in the poop, or the back part of the
ship, to the females. There are two rows of
berths, one above the other, round each com-
partment. The berths are three feet by six feet,
just affording room for two persons to lie down.
They are separated from each other by a slight,
low deal board, about ten inches high, so that
when we are all in bed, our bodies, rising higher
than these boards which separate us, it seems as
if we were ranged side by side in one immense
bed all round the place. We sleep on straw
mattresses, with a double blanket and a rug.
We live at present on nothing but beef and
soup and biscuit, but there is plenty of that.
We are divided into messes — eight persons to
a mess. One of the eight acts as captain for
the rest for a week, and then another for
another week. The captain's job is to get the
provisions for the rest from the ship's steward.

LETTER TWENTY-ONE 85

to see to its being cooked, to wash the dishes,
&c. I am captain this week. We have a black
■cook. When we get out to sea where fresh beef
cannot be obtained, we shall be victualled ac-
cording to the scheme in Mr. Marshall's paper.
I think that will suit me a great deal better.
We have nearly all our passengers on board
now. A boat load of Irish 'real emeralds/ as
the surgeon called them, came last night. A
young* Jew from London forfeited his passage
money and left the ship the other day, heartily
tired of it. A man who was going out free also
ran away last Sunday morning, as soon as we
got here, and left all his clothes behind him.
We have a clei'gyman going out with us, who
came on board to-day.

They talk of our going direct to Sydney, and
not touching anywhere. We have live stock on
board for the use of the ship, A cow and calf,
24 pigs, 30 sheep, geese, fowls, etc. Not for us,
though, mind you. Our united love to father,
mother, and all of you. Give Clarinda's love to
her father and brother, if you ever see them.
Your affectionate brother,

H. PARKES.

This letter will go to London by Mr. Marshall's
agent.

LETTER, TWENTY-TWO.

Sydney,
May Id, 1840.

My Deaf. Friends,

This is a duty I ought to have performed
months ago, and you will think harshly of me
for this neglect. I have no excuse to plead, save
that I was unwilling to sadden your hearts with
a tale of misery. I waited from day to day, and
from month to month, hoping to be able to give
a cheering account of this country, but it is a
sad one I write at last. I have been disappointed
in all my expectations of Australia, except as to
its wickedness ; for it is far more wicked than I
had conceived it possible for any place to be, or
than it is possible for me to describe to you in
England. We came to anchor in Sydney harbour
on the morning of the 25th July, 1839, my dear

LETTER TWENTY-TWO 87

wife having become the mother of a little girl on
the 23rd, Avhen we were a few hours' sailing
clear of Bass's Strait. Our little blue-eyed
ocean child gets on very well, and is now, of
course, more than nine months old, I thank God
for this blessing.

" He moves in a mysterious way
His wonders to perform,"

or this sweet one of ours could never have out-
lived the many ills which every day of its short
life hath brought. I had but two or three
shillings Avhen we got to Sydney, and the first
news that came on board was that the 4 lb. loaf
was selling at half-a-crown ! and everything pro-
portionately dear. There was no place for the
emigrants to go to till such time as they could
engage with masters, or otherwise provide for
themselves. When they left the ship they had
to do as best they could. Poor Clarinda in her
weak state had no one to do the least thing for
her, not even dress her baby, or make her bed;
and in a few days she was obliged to go on
shore, with her new-born infant in her arms, and
to walk a mile across the town of Sydney to the
miserable place I had been able to provide for
her as a home, which was a little low, dirty,
unfurnished room, without a fire place, at five

88 AN EMIGBAXrS SOME LETTERS

shillings per week rent. When she sat down,
within these wretched walls, overwhelmed with
fatigue, on a box which I had brought with us
from the ship I had but threepence in the
world, and no employment. For more than two
weeks I kept beating about Sydney for work,
durinof which time I sold one thino^ and another
from our little stock for support. At length,
being completely starved out, I engaged as a
common labourer with Sir John Jamison, Kt.,
M.C., to go about thirty-six miles up the country.
Sir John agreed to give me £25 for the year,
with a ration and half of food. This amounted
to weekly : —

beef — sometimes unfit to eat.
rice — of the worst imaginable quality,
flour — half made up of ground rice,
sugar — good-tasted brown,
tea — inferior.

soap — not enough to wash our hands.
2 figs of tobacco — useless to me.

This was what we had to live upon, and not a
leaf of a vegetable or a drop of milk beyond this.
For the first four months we had no other bed
than a sheet of bark off a box tree, and an old
door, laid on two cross pieces of wood, covered
over with a few articles of clothing. The hut
appointed for us to live in was a very poor one.

10.^

lbs,

lOi

lbs,

lbs.

lb.

LETTER TWENTY-TWO 89

The Tnorning sunsliine, the noontide sliower, and
the white moonlight of midnight, gushed in upon
us alike. You will, perhaps, think had you been
with us, you would have had a few vegetables at
any rate, for you would have made a bit of
garden, and cultivated them for yourselves ; but
you would have done no such thing ! The slave-
masters of New South Wales require their ser-
vants to work for them from sunrise till sunset,
and will not allow them to have gardens, lest
they should steal a half-hour's time to work in
them. I should mention that our boxes, coming
up from Sydney on Sir John's dray, were broken
open, and almost everything worth carrying
away was stolen. I made this at first a very
grave complaint, but only got laughed at for my
pains, and told that was nothing. During the
time I was at Sir John's, I was employed mostly
in a vineyard consisting of sixteen acres of land.
I was there during the vintage season, and left
just as we had done wine-making in the middle
of last February, having been in his service six
months. This estate of Sir John's is named
' Regentville,' and is situated about three miles
from the small town of Penrith, on the bank of
the Nepean River, and about the same distance
from the first rauffe of the Blue Mountains. I

90 AN EMIGRANTS HOME LETTERS

have been in Sydney now better than two
months, part of which time I worked in a large
ironmongery store in George-street, which was
founded by Macdonald, who now resides, I
believe, at Birmingham. I am at the present
time at work for Messrs. Russell Bros., engineers
and brassfounders, Queen's Place, George-street.
I get £ve shillings per day, finishing brass work ;
good brassfounders get 7s. Od. and 8s. a day, I
think I could get plenty of light turning to do,
and a good price for it, if I had a lathe, which I
will try to get before long. I am very unsettled
at present on account of ill-health. This brass
business does not suit me at all — have not been
able to do any work for the last week. I think
I shall be obliged to go into the country again.
As soon as I get settled I will write and arrange
with you how you may forward a few things
which I should like to get from England as soon
as I can remit the money. In the meantime, be
pleased to write immediately, and let us know
how all our dear friends have fared since we left
home, I hope well. Address, Mr. Henry Parkes,
ivory turner, at the General Post Ofiice, Sydney,
New South Wales. You must pay the land
postage, or the letters w411 not be sent with the
mails on board ship. Send me some newspapers.

LETTER TWENTY-TWO 91

and write on the wrappers of them ' newspaper
only.' Send me all the news you can. I have
seen but one person since I have been in this
colony, whom I had any knowledge of in England;

that was , who was transported about

two years ago, from Moseley-street. I saw him
once — met him in Sydney — he was then stay-
ing in the hands of Government at the new
prison at Woolloomooloo. For the encourage-
ment of any at home who think of emigrating, I
ought to add that I have not seen one single
individual who came out with me in the 8trath-
fieldsaye but most heartily wishes himself back
at home. Mr. Isaac Aaron, who lived in Deritend,
is practising in this colony as a surgeon, at Ray-
mond Terrace, on tlie River Hunter.
With my heart's prayers for you all,

I remain,

H. PARKES.

P.S. — Wages in Sydney at the present time
are about as follow-^o-ood workmen : —

per week.

£ s.

Smiths"

2 0

to 2 10

Engineers ...

2 2

„ 3 0

Carpenters ...

2 0

„ 2 10

Masons

2 0

„ 2 S

Compositors

2 10

„ :i 0

92 AN EMIGRANTS ROME LETTERS

£ s. d. a s. d.

Turners ... 1 10 0 to 1 16 0 per week.

House painters 1 16 0 ,, 2 8 0 ,,

Other mechanics about the same.

Labourers ... 1 4 0 ,, 1 10 0 „

You miglit get as good a house in Birmingliam
for 2s. 6d. per week when I left as you can get
in Sydney for 15s. per week.

Clarinda sends her love and best wishes to
her dear parents, with which I unite my own.
Tell my own dear father and mother, if — as I
trust — they are both alive, that they are seldom
absent from my thoughts. Give my love to my
dear nephews Thomas and William. Tell James
I am not sorry he did not come out here with
us, though I think he might have done as well
as most. I will give you some general account
of this country in my next, which you may
expect in a month or two after the receipt of
this, and I hope my next account of my own
progress will be more satisfactory. Tell John
Yarney I would advise him by no means to come
to this colony. Tell him to write.

Note. — John Varney, my mother's brother, afterwards
went to Canada. — A. T. P.

LETTER TWENTY-TEEEE.

Sydney,
September 22nd, 1840.

My Dear Sister, —

My letter of 1st May gave you but a gloomy
account of Australia. I have some tiling to say
now a little more cheering, though I could not
at present muster courage to persuade any of
my friends in England to think of emigrating.

I am noAV in a situation which promises not
only to provide me comfortable bread, but to
enable me to save a little money. You have
doubtless heard of such gentlemen as Custom
House oflficers, whose business it is to catch
smugglers, seize contraband goods, etc. Your
humble servant is now one of these. I spend
most of my time on board ships, where I have
a good deal of leisure to write poetry — I have

94 AN EMIGRANTS HOME LETTERS

enough already to fill a book, most of which has
been published in a Sydney newspaper. But I
intend to apply some of this waste time to a
better purpose — that of writing a series of letters
to you and other dear friends in England,
descriptive of this country.

In the meantime, send me word how all is
going on at home. I hope my dear father is in
good health, and comfortable. My poor afflicted
mother, I have a sad presentiment, must be gone
for ever. If God has spared her, tell her that
we poor exiles in Australia are comparatively
happy, though we cling to the hope of returning
to Old England. Give my dear Avife's love to
her father, and tell him that she weeps at the
mention of his name. Tell him that we have
now another Clarinda, a little friendless, blue-
eyed infant, that looks up in his daughter's face
and lisps ' mamma.' She was born amidst the
rage of the turbulent sea, where no one smiled
upon her birth ; but He who holds the ocean in
the hollow of His hand was with us on the
waters. Kemember us to all, Maria, Eliza, John,
James, George, and our nephews, Thomas and
William.

God bless you all. Farewell. Pa}'- the land
postage in England or the letters, I believe, will

LETTER TWENTY-THREE 95

not be forwarded. Address, Mr. Henry F. Parkes,
care of H.M. Customs, Sydney, N.S.W.
Your affectionate brother,

HENRY F. PARKES.

Note. — I was much surprised to find that this and tlie
two following letters were signed ' Henry F. Parkes,' as I
never heard my father say he had another name, nor does
he appear to have so signed his name before or since. I
suppose he thought of adopting the name of ' Faulconbridge,'
his mother's maiden name. — A. T. P.

LETTER TWENTY-FOUR.

Sydney,
May 24th, 1841.

My Deak Sistee,

On tlie 16tli of last montli I received your
letter, dated November 17tli, 1840, and I cannot
tell you tlie happiness it afforded me to know
that my mother was still living to hear from her
undutiful son, for I can scarcely forgive myself
for not having written sooner, though I then
had but an ill account to write. I expected to
hear of misery and affliction from what I am
able to learn here of the state of things at home,
and therefore was not surprised at my father
being so unfortunate, but not less sorry. I have
not received any newspapers, and I hope you
will not be at the trouble to send any more
unless you can send them by some safer means

LETTER TWENTY-FOUR 97

than by post, as it appears that some party or
other in the post office department makes it a
common practice to detain all the English papers
he can. It is my pleasing dnty to tell you now
that I have a much happier prospect before me
than I had when I wrote to you this time last
year, or than I ever had in my life. In my letter
of May, 1840, my conscience constrained me to
state the truth, however unwillingly. I and my
dear and virtuous wife were then enduring the
utmost poverty, and had been in that state ever
since our arrival in the colony, I had then to
associate, in my endeavours to obtain a livelihood,
with the most debased and servile characters to
be found in society. That confession of my
misfortunes, I had reason to believe, would be
highly gratifying to some at home, however they
might attempt to disguise it ; but there were
others at home who had a right to know the
truth, and I told you m}^ misery and disappoint-
ment, heedless of the sneer of gratified male-
volence. It would be ungrateful in me to say
that I have met with no friends in Australia.
When I had nothing to eat, and no means of
getting it in the wild bush, a convict, who
evidently knew the circumstance, brought me a
share of his rations. On another occasion, when

98 ^A^ EMIGRANTS HOME LETTERS

I had to travel through the bush in the middle
of the night, a poor prisoner got up from his
bed to carry my bagg-age, out of pure respect.
But think not that I met with respect and kind-
ness only among this class of my fellow-creatures.
One of the most influential men in the colony, a
member of the Legislative Council, and a
descendant from one of the most illustrious
families in England, has not thought me
undeserving his kindness, and I have lately sat
down to table with some of the most respectable
merchants in Sydney. I have now a more com-
fortable home than it was ever my lot to possess
in England. There is one species of wretched-
ness which I am now entirely free from — that
of being in debt with no means of paying.
Companions I have none beyond my Avife and
child, but I have plenty of books to amuse my-
self, and a deal of leisure time in which to I'ead
them. Upon the whole, I am getting reconciled
to the country, though my home-sick heart still
very frequently pines for its native land. Poor
Clarinda spends a very solitary life, as my
situation requires me to be absent from her the
greater part of my time ; still, the thought that
our native land could not yield us bread recon-
ciles her to the absence of friends, and our dear

LETTER TWENTY-FOUE 99

little girl, who can now just totter about from
chair to chair, and repeat many little words very
sweetly — our dear little blue-eyed ocean child is
ever with her, to soothe her in her lonely hours.
You ask me for the child's name. It is
' Clarinda Sarah.' She is now a year and ten
months old, and, excepting a slight cold, is in a
happy state of health. If she is at any time
poorly, she fights most stoutly against taking
physic, and says to her mother : " Father will
beat you." In your next letter be pleased to let
me know how all of you are getting on, par-
ticularly my father and mother (that I may
determine in what way I may best assist them).
It is my intention to remit some money home as
soon as possible. It is probable that I shall
return to London in three or four years, but I
shall be sure not to stay in England, nor do I
think I shall settle in Sydney. I have promised
myself a voyage to Java before returning to
Europe, which I shall probably make in the
latter part of next year. You will think I am
speaking extravagantly, but do not be surprised
to receive a letter from me, dated from Manilla,
or Sourabaya, or Batavia, or even Calcutta, for
I am determined upon a trip to the East. Should
you have any opportunity of sending to me

100 AN EMIGRANTS HOME LETTERS

otherwise tlian by post, send me all the old
Birmingham newspapers which you can muster,
also, if you can get them, the Weekly Dispatch,
Tail's Magazine, and other publications of a
late date. The only way in which you can
send anything with safety is to make it into a small
parcel, and send it by some particular ship, writing
me the ship's name by post, but minding that the
letterdoes not come in the same ship; tliatis, write
early enough for 3'our letter to come by some
ship that sails before the one which is to bring
the parcel. Your living so far from any seaport
is an obstacle, but you can write to the agent of
the ship you see advertised in London or Liver-
pool. The Times newspaper is the best for
shipping advertisements. I am intimately ac-
quainted with Mr. Chapman, chief officer of the
Robert Neivton, to whose care I entrust this
small parcel. Should he be coming out here
again, I will get him to write to you before sail-
ing, so that anything you may wish to send may
be forwarded to him to bring out to me. The
Robert Newton will sail from Sydney in about
three weeks from the date of this. In all pro-
bability she will arrive in England about Sep-
tember. I am also well acquainted with Capt.
Hurry of the barque Beatrice, now loading at

LETTER TWENTY-FOUR 101

Sydney for London. By this vessel I will send
to you. Be sure and write to me frequently.
Should you see Mr. John Varney^ junior^ ask
him to write to me. He is a young man whom
I should much respect, even if he was not my
wife's only brother. Tell him that I and his
dear sister were much grieved to hear of the
loss of his children, and much rejoiced to know
that he was prospering in business, for he richly
deserves to prosper. If my father-in-law, Mr.
R. Varney, has it in his power to do anything
for his children, I hope he will do all he can for
John, for Clarinda will never want anything
from him. In your letter you told me that
Clarinda' s father had sent a message by Dr.
Ross. Clarinda accordingly waited on that
gentleman the following Sunday, at the Inde-
pendent Chapel in Pitt-street, and he stated
that he had received no message whatever. Tell
Mr. Varney from me not to trifle with our feel-
ings again, through the agency of Dr. Ross or
Dr. anybody else. If he has anything to say to
us let him write, if there be pens and ink in
Birmingham. In your next letter let me know
if my father has any notion of being a farmer
again, if he would make up his mind to leave his
native country for ever, if he would like to end

102 AN EMIGRANTS HOME LETTERS

his days with us in Australia. He need not fear
the hardships which we had to endure coming
here, as we did, entire strangers.

Give our love to my brothers and sisters, with
my best wishes for their future happiness. The
trifles I send with this are hardly worth your
accepting, ' But yet reject them not as such ! '
You wish to have some account of our passage
out from England, which I will endeavour to
furnish you in one of my next letters. In the
meantime,

I remain.

Yours affectionatelv;

H. PARKES.

Address, Mr. Henry F. Parkes, ofl3.cer of H.M.
Customs, in care of Mr. W. Magee, bookseller
and stationer, Pitt-street North, Sydney, N.S.W.

LETTER TWE NTT-FIVE,

Sydney,
May 21, 1841.

My Dear Sister,

I have just received from the post oiEce your
letter dated December 6tli, 1840, together with
the five newspapers (for which I am much ob-
liged). Yesterday I delivered into the care of
Mr. Chapman, chief officer of the brig Robert
Newton, a small package containing Sydney
newspapers, a few shells, and an unsealed letter
with a little of ours and baby's hair. The Robert
Newton will go to sea next week, bound direct
to London. She will probably arrive about
October. My friend Mr Chapman will forward
the parcel to jon as soon as he gets to London.
He may pass through Birmingliam on his way to
his home in Yorkshire. If so he will call upon

104 AN EMIGRANTS HOME LETTERS

you. I wrote a second letter to you last October.
Received your answer to my first, dated Novem-
ber 17tli, on the 16tli of last month. I wrote to
Mr. J. Varney, March 23, 1841. Will write to
Mr. W. Hornblower in a week or two. In my
letter by the Robert Newton I tell you not to send
any more newspapers by post, as I did not receive
your first. As I have been more fortunate with
these I would revoke that request.

The letter I receive to-day gives me much
happiness. I rejoice to think that things do
not appear to change for the worse at home,
though I am afraid they get but little better.
I scarcely know what feeling in me is strongest
when I read your kind proposal to send us things
from England : gratitude for or admiration of
your affectionate generosity.

You wish for some account of the passage out
from England. You shall have it in a few words.
After gazing on the Land's End of Cornwall as it
rapidly lessened away from our view on the 8th
of April, 1839, we never saw land again, with
the exception of the rugged cliffs of the Island
of St. Antonia (the most western of the Verde
Islands, off the cape of that name, on the coast
of Africa), till we arrived on the opposite side
of the world. We were sailing with a fair breeze.

LETTER TWENTY-FIVE 105

at eiglit or ten knots^ when we passed Antonia ;
therefore it was not in sight more than three or
four hours. We saw neither human beings beast,
bird, nor tree upon it ; nothing but the bare per-
pendicular rocks. On the first of June we were
caught in a tremendous gale of wind, which
increased during the night to a complete hurri-
cane. For two days and nights we were either
lying to or drifting before the tempest, with no
other stitch of canvas than our close-reefed mizzen-
top-sail ; during which time the winds blew so
terribly that we expected every minute to see
the masts torn out of the ship, and heavy seas
kept continually sweeping the deck. About
the fourth evening after the storm abated we
sighted a vessel in a dismasted condition. We
saw lights of distress during the first part of the
night, but on the following morning the horizon
of the waters was without a speck. It would
seem she went down in the night. We after-
wards spoke a vessel from Newcastle, bound to
India, which told us of the Red Rove?' being a
total wreck on the Island of St. Jago. The Red
Rover sailed out of Plymouth Sound while we
were lying there, bound to Sydney. On
the 20th July we made King's Island, at the
entrance of Bass's Strait, having had cold

106 AN EMIGRANTS HOME LETTERS

and rough weather all the way from the
latitude of the Cape of Good Hope. We
did not get through Bass's Straits till the
22nd. On the 23rd we saw the mainland. The
night of the 22nd was very rough, the ship
rolling a great deal, and on that night our little
one was born. The sun rose from the land on
the 24th to take possession of an almost cloudless
sky. The line of coast continued to lengthen
till it stretched either Avay as far as the eye could
reach in the bland and beautiful sunlight. The
following night we were tacking about in sight
of the lighthouse erected on the south head of
Port Jackson. On the morning of the 25th,
about 8 o'clock, we entered inside the heads, and
in two hours afterwards anchored off Dawes'
Battery, completing the passage in a little more
than a hundred days.

When within the tropics we had the most
delightful weather imaginable. The water was
so smooth that the ship glided along almost
without any perceptible motion. We saw whole
fleets of nautilus floating past us every day, and
sometimes the expanse of sea would be alive
with shoals of porpoises, and ever and anon a
little company of fl^nng fish would spring up
into the sun and drop again at a short distance

LETTER TWENTY-FIVE 107

into the bright and level waters. During a short
calm on the line we counted one morning seven-
teen other vessels, none of them near us. From
about the Cape of Good Hope to our journey's
end we were surrounded every day by albatross
and other sea birds. This is all ! A poor account
truly, but such as it is you must be pleased to be
satisfied with it, for I can remember nothing to
make me wish to think of the subject again. I
will send you all the information concerning
Australia which I think worth your attention in
future letters, and I will write much more fre-
quently. I will also often send some news-
papers. I send about fifty by the Robert Newton.
I see many London papers, but very seldom
country papers. I have dined several times
latety on board ship with a young gentleman
from Birmingham, a son of Mr. Price, silver-
smith, at the bottom of Bull-street. It is not
often I meet with anyone from that part of the
country.

When you write after receiving this be pleased
to let us know how Thomas is getting on in his
education. I hope you will be sure to let him
obtain a competent knowledge of arithmetic and
the substantial branches of learning, to enable
him to fill a respectable mercantile situation, in

108 AN EMIGRANTS HOME LETTERS

case it sliould be convenient foi- him to seek such
employment. I hope he is a good boy and kind
and aifectionate to you all. And may He who
is the Father of the Fatherless bless and prosper
him in all things. I hope my brothers are
comfortable and happy. Give my love to both
of them. Tell my dear father and mother that
the world's extension intervening shall not keep
me from seeing them again if G-od spares us but
two or three years longer. I often wish my
father was here with me now, that I could
provide for him in comfort, for I feel so lonely
in this land of strangers. Yet there is some-
thing so heart-sickening in one's being an exile,
that I am afraid to hold out encouragement to
anyone to leave their native land. In case any
of you should feel inclined to come out here,
write me word to that effect as early as possible.
I will give you a particular account of what
could be done here in a future letter, and that
of an early date.

I hope you will not be at the expense of
sending anything for me as intimated in your
kind letter, as neither of us now is in need of
such in the shape of clothing. With respect to
a lathe, I shall buy one in the colony. Any
little thing you may wish to send for little

LETTER TWENTY. FIVE 109

Clarinda Sarah, I need not tell you, will be
prized as coming from her aunts in Old England.
When Mr. Chapman is in London you can
entrust any parcel to him, and he will either get
some seafaring gentleman who may be coming
out here to bring it to me, or ship it in a regular
manner, paying the freight in London, and
getting a bill of lading signed for it. There are
several little things which I want to get from
home. I will enumerate them when I send the
money to procure them. I should like very well
to have the dog, but do not send him till you see
whether I am likely soon to return. I am
extremely glad to hear that Mr. J. Varney is
getting on well in business. Send me word
what John Hornblower is doing, if you can learn
without giving yourself much trouble. Write
to me as frequently as you can. Clarinda sends
her love to all her friends, to which I add my
own, sincerely wishing them every earthly
happiness and prosperity; but ask Mr. Varney
not to send any more messages, as he is likely to
be understood by writing much better. In an
early letter I will let you know my views as to
the future. I am now very anxious about getting
money, not being at all content to come here for
no purpose. I must now bid you ' farewell '

no AN EMIGRANTS HOME LETTERS

for the present. With my dear wife's love to
my father and mother, and to you all, in which I
most heartily unite.

Your affectionate brother,

HENRY F. PARKES.

Note. — The ' Thomas ' so often mentioned in these letters
was the son of my father's eldest brother, left fatherless
and'motherless at an early age, and reared by my aunts.

A. T. P.

LETTER TWENTY-SIX.

Sydney,
August 8th, 1841.

My Dear Sister, —

I received yesterday your letter dated
February 22nd, together Avitk one from Mr.
R. Varney, making the third and fourth since I
left England. This will make the sixth letter I
have written to you. I wrote Mr. J. Varney last
March, and to Mr. W. Hornblower June 3rd. A
letter to my father I shall post with this. I have
received nine newspapers in all. The papers
you sent with this last letter were not likely to
reach me, as it appears they came by a ship
bound to Port Phillip, the overland mail bringing
the letters on to Sydney, a distance of six
hundred miles. Our dear little girl has been at
death's door since my last, at which time she

112 AN EMIGRANT S HOME LETTERS

was not well, though I did not write to that
effect, thinking she would soon get better. I am
happy to inform you now that she is regaining
her health very fast, so fast that I have included
her in ' all very well ' to my father, but she is
not able to walk at present. We have been able
to obtain medical aid, with which Clarinda was
quite satisfied, and the dear little sufferer has
wanted no comfort. I was sorry to hear of the
death of my brother's wife, but hope he will be
comforted. Was much rejoiced to hear that my
mother's health was continuing so good. I hope
you will not apprentice our nephew for some
twelve months to come, by which time I should
be able to advise what best to do with him (if
you think my advice worth having). In the
meantime I think he should be employed.
Suppose you got him into a printing office for a
short time. He would be attaining a knowledge
of printing as a business and of book-making
altogether, which would foster his taste for
reading at the same time, as he would be get-
ting a little money. (Nothing like getting money ;
nothing can be done Avithout it. I know the
value of money now ! Money ! money ! money !
is my watchword in future !) But do not neglect
his education. Attend especially to that branch

LETTER TWENTY- SIX 113

whicH may fit liim for business. On no account
suffer him to neglect arithmetic. Drawing is
very well in its place — a very beautiful acquisition,
but it must not become a mere childish passion,
to the subversion of that which may make him a
gentleman, an intelligent and useful member of
society. Drawing will be of no use to him in
the merchant's counting house, and I do not
think Birmingham the place for his future
existence. What is his age ? Does he read
much, and what kind of books ? Give my love
to him, and tell him to be a good fellow — to
begin to be a man !

I have little more to say at present, and as
little time. I am quite happy now in Australia,
and I am sure this will add to your happiness.
I have got together a good many books, with
other comforts, since I have been here, among
which are the following : ' Plutarch's Lives,'
complete ; Smith's ' Wealth of Nations,' com-
plete ; Dr. Lang's 'History of Australia;'
' Sturt's Expeditions into Australia ; ' ' Blair's
Lectures ; ' ' Poetical Works of James Mont-
gomery,' complete in three vols. ; ' Goldsmith's
Works,' complete in four vols. ; * The Works
of Shakespeare,' complete ; ' The Spectator,'
complete ; ' Sir William Jones' Letters ; ' and

114 AN EMIORA NT S HOME LETTERS

many more. You will see I have some reading
now under my own roof, though I was obliged to
sell every book I had when I first arrived to buy
bread. There is a great fall in the price of this
article lately. The 4 lbs. loaf is now only eight-
pence. There is some difference between this
and 2s. 6d., and almost everything in Sydney
except rent is very reasonable. I bought a
carpenter's hand-saw from a broker's shop, quite
new, and as good as the one you sent me in
London, for 4s. What do you think of this ?
Yours affectionately,

H. PARKES.

LETTER TWENTY-SEVEN.

Sydney,
September 15th, 1841.

My Dear Sister,

You will perceive by a newspaper of to-day's
date, which I shall post with this, that hundreds
of emigrants are at the present time starving
in the streets of Sydney, so great has been the
over-supply of labour here since my last. Of
this deplorable fact I could send you other and
stronger proof had I leisure to do so, but I write
this away from home, not deeming it right to
delay a moment in letting you know. A week
ago there were eight vessels riding at anchor in
the harbour, all crowded with emigrants ! And
though many of them have now been engaged to
go into the interior, I am afraid great numbers
will not be able to obtain employment. By the

116 AN EMIGRANTa HOME LETTERS

emigration regulations they are only allowed to
remain on board their respective vessels ten days
after their arrival in Port Jackson, and at the
expiration of that time they are invariably turned
adrift to provide for themselves in the way they
best can. If they cannot get employment, and
have no money, of course they must starve ! I
saw a case in the newspapers last week of a
young woman who was turned out of one of these
emigrant ships when the ten days were up, and
was found by a policeman sitting on the Queen's
Wharf, and taken to the watchhouse. The next
morning she was brought before the magistrate,
charged with being drunk ; and though she stated
that it was f aintness, and that she was meditating
suicide when the policeman came to her, yet she
was sentenced, on the oath of the policeman, to
sit one hour in the stocks ! What encourage-
ment for persons to come to Australia !

I must now conclude, hoping that you are all
in the enjoyment of health. Our little Clara is
getting quite well again. Clarinda and myself
are quite well. The merchants of Sydney are all
in a state of bankruptcy.

Yours affectionately,

H. PARKES.

LETTER TWENTY-EIGHT.

Sydney,
23rd January, 1842.

My Dear Sister,

Your letter dated Gtli June, 1841, came to
hand this day, making the fourth I have received
from you, with one from Mr. R. Varney.
I must also have received the greater part of
the newspapers, though I cannot state how many.
This will make the tenth or eleventh letter to
you, with one each to Mr. J. Varney and Mr. W.
Hornblower, and the best part of a hundred
newspapers. I write this on ship-board, or I
would state the exact number, having an account
at home. I need not tell you how I am dis-
tressed to hear of dear father suffering so much
from bad health, and of all of you being still
unfortunate in that way. I hope, however, that

117

118 AN EMIGRANTS HOME LETTERS

all are now safely restored to that greatest of
earthly blessings, and my sorrow is somewhat
decreased by learning our beloved mother is so
much better than I dared to allow myself to
hope. I am happy to inform you that I and my
Clarinda and our Clarinda Sally are all in the
enjoyment of excellent health. Our little light-
hearted ' Ninna/ as we call her, runs about and
chatters at a fine rate. xVnd what do you think
her home-sick mother has taught her ? Some-
times when I go home, she runs to me with :
"Father, take us in a big ship to see grand-
fathers and aunties in England, do, father ! " In
a parcel which I sent home last June I enclosed
a small lock of her hair. I will, perhaps, send
you her portrait in a future one. You tell me
Tom is reading Cunningham's ' New South
Wales;' I am glad to hear it. Cunningham, I
believe, gives an excellent account of the colony,
but I never read him myself. I hope Tom is
getting on in his education, ■particularly in
arithmetic, which will be the chief thing he will
have to depend upon in his future life — for a
respectable position in society. I am heartily
glad to hear that Mr. J. Varney is getting on so
well in business. My prayers will be for his
prosperity, for I believe him an excellent man.

LETTER TWENTY-EIGHT 119

and must continue in this belief wliicli makes me
happy, though he may deem me worthless. Give
my love to him — should you see him — also to his
father. Tell Mr. R. Varney that his daughter is
comfortable, and as happy as a virtuous woman
in her situation can be. Tell him it is time any
enmity he may feel towards me should cease,
though in some measure he may have had cause
for it. The fact of our being separated to the
opposite extreme of the earth should, I think,
help to make us friends. I do not believe my
follies in earlier life were so great as my mis-
fortunes. I entered the world with as little
experience and as many difficulties as ever
young man had for his portion. I did not
succeed; what wonder! My native land seemed
too unfriendly for me to live in — I loved it — you
know how well I loved my country ; yet I tore
myself away to seek for ' leave to toil' in a foreign
land. I had to encounter a new kind of suffer-
ing, but not a Avorse, though sufficiently ample
to punish me for my former errors.

I am now more happily situated, but there is
much bitterness at best in the lot of an exile.
And Clarinda and I have little to ameliorate the
exile's lot j we have neither wealth nor friends,
and the very means of comfort afforded us is in

120 AN EMIGRA^rS HOME LETTERS

itself a source of discomfort, for it separates us,
who have none other for the weary heart to lean
upon. Still we have much to be thankful for,
and I trust we are truly thankful. And, God
willing, the time shall come when all who know
us at Birmingham shall acknowledge that we are
honourable. In the meantime let us be content.
Accept for yourself, my dearest sister, my grate-
ful acknowledgments for all your past kindness.
You have been to me a sister, affectionate with
the watchful affection of a mother. I cannot
remember a moment of life when you did not
smile upon me with gentleness and love. It was
you who did nurse me in my earliest sickness,
and you whose voice of comfort came last to me
in my native land. When affliction smote my
mother in earlier years you caught the maternal
glow of her love, and supplied her place. You
taught me first to pray, and my best prayers
shall be offered up for you. And I have other
sisters ; may God be most kind to them ! Give
my love to my brothers. If we never meet again
may their years be many and their share of
happiness large. That they may go down to the
grave in honour and peace will ever be his prayer
who is far away.

I thank you sincerely for the sweet words of

LETTER TWENTY.EIGHT 121

consolation and advice wliicli you send me over
the wide, wide sea. You also have my thanks
for the news you send me about old Brummagen.
You have a poet and a poetess, have you ?
You do not seem to be aware that the greatest
poetical personage of Birmingham is now living
with us at the Antipodes. The late Miss
Twamley, now Mrs. Meredith, is a resident in
Australia. And what do you think of my setting
up poet? I am positively preparing for the
press a volume of verses ; have already sub-
scribers for 100 copies, including some of the
greatest names in New South Wales, as by-and-
by you will see. Among your news you tell
me that you have a nunnery in Birmingham.
Why, I declare the old place is getting quite
romantic ! You must take care of Maria and
Eliza, lest they take the veil. I should
not like to see them nuns. But, joking apart,
do not be alarmed at a convent of sisters of
mercy. They will not (think as you please)
hurt Protestantism. You must let me know how
the Chartists are getting on, and if you should
see anything in the papers respecting William
Lovett, who was imprisoned with John Collins in
Warwick gaol, be pleased to send me the paper
containing it. I am very desirous to know as

122 AN EMIGRANTS HOME LETTERS

rauch as I can about him. He appears to me to
be one of the best men in England. I must now
endeavour to collect you a little news — colonial
news.

The commercial state of Sydney is at the
present time^ and has been for the last twelve
months, as gloomy as can well be conceived.
The market is overstocked with almost every
commodity. Most kinds of British goods may
be purchased here as cheap as, or cheaper than,
in England. Failures to enormous amounts
occur continually. There is scarcely a mercan-
tile house in Sydney which a man could say
with safety was solvent a year ago, which is not
now undermined by these repeated crashes of
bankruptcy. At present we have also too
much labour in Sydney, gi'eat numbers of work-
men, mechanics, and labourers, ' old hands in
the colony ' — unemployed. The ncAV-comers fare
worse, of course — that is, those who stay in the
town. In the interior there is still employment.
Wages are much lower than they were a few
months ago. You will feel surprised that in
this state of things there should be such a cry
raised in the colony for increased immigration,
not only from Great Britain and the continent
of Europe, but from India and China. The fact

LETTER TWENTY-EIGHT 123

iSj the parties who are foremost in the endeavour
to inundate us Avith Avorkers look only to the
depreciation of labour as the sure result. They
have been accustomed to having the convict's
toil for nothing, and they cannot bring their
minds to paying for that of the free man. Hence
they would fain have the poor coolie from India,
bound to them for a number of years — a slave
in everything but in name. You will be kind
enough to excuse my rambling and blundering
manner of writing. I have much to say but have
not time to think about it just now. I propose
writing you descriptions of my Avalks about the
town, and of different characters I meet with
here, as I think this kind of minute description
of what comes under my own observation will
interest you more than any general account of
the country which I am able to give you. There
is a man now passing before my eyes well worth
describing.

Imagine yourself standing by me on the deck
of a small schooner lying in Sydney harbour.
There is a miserable-looking old man paddling
an old canoe from the Sydney side to the
opposite shore. The face is unshorn, and his
beard and hair are as white as snow. As his
vessel glides over the sunny waters he casts his

124 AN EMIGRANTS HOME LETTERS

haggard countenance towards tlie bright blue
sky above, and you hear him speaking vehem-
ently in a jargon between French and English.
Listen ! You now hear him fiercely cursing God
Almighty, and calling upon the devil. For
twenty years past that white-headed and impious
maniac has led the same life, cursing Grod every
day as you hear him now. He is well-known to
sailors frequenting Port Jackson by the name of
' French Peter.' In early life he was an ofiicer
of the French army, but having committed
a murder at home he fled and sought refuge in
Australia. Many ^^ears ago, when he first arrived,
he became possessed of some propert}^ That
patch of land by the water-side, which you now
see occupied by Mr. West, was then his. That
land, at the present time, is worth c€10,000. He,
growing a reckless drunkard, sold it for 16s. and
a bottle of rum ! For the last twenty years he
has had no home, living in a hole in a rock on
the north shore. Some days he brings over to
Sydney a few oysters, and selling them buys
bread. The iguanas have been known to steal
his bread in the night, when in the morning he
would come back to Sydney for more, declaring
that the devil came when it was dark, and took
away his bread. Whenever you see ' French

LETTER TWENTY-EIGHT 125

Peter' lie is cursing God^ and raving about tlie
devil.

I will write to yon again at no distant period.
By this time you must have received three or
four other letters from me, to which I shall soon
begin to expect answers. It is now the fruit
season in Sydney. The market is well supplied.
Peaches from one penny to sixpence per dozen,
which are the commonest kind of fruit here.

Clarinda send her love to you all, to which is
added that of

Your affectionate brother,

HENRY PARKES.

P.S. — I saw Mr. Badliam, of Birmingham, about
three weeks ago, when he informed me that he
had purchased the ship Renown, and intended to
go home in her as soon as he could procure a
cargo, his business in Sydney being nearly all
settled.

Note. — My father never appears to have carried out his
intention of sending home ' descriptions of my walks about
the town, and of different characters I meet here,' which
is a great pity. How interesting those descriptions would
be now ! It must be clearly understood that I have altered
nothing in these letters, and I have omitted very little —
good or bad, still they show what Henry Parkes was at
twenty-seven. —A. T. P.

LETTER TWENTY-NINE.

Sydney,
27th March, 1842.

My Dear Sister,

We are quite unhappy iu not hearing from
you more frequently. It is now more than nine
months since the date of your last letter (June
6th, 1841). Intelligence has reached the colony
of the safe arrival of four vessels, by which I
sent home letters, subsequent to those you name
as having received; and yet I get no answers. I
hope, however, the cause of my anxiety is nothing
worse than the tardiness of the conveyance by
which we are doomed to receive your favours.
In your last you stated that father and other
members of the family had been suffering from
illness. I trust all are now perfectly restored to
health. We in Sydney are quite well, except

LETTER TWENTY-NINE 127

little Clarinda, who has a slight cold. I have
nothing of particular interest to communicate.
Sydney is still in a bad state. In the papers I
send you with this you will see some particulars
of an action in the Supreme Court for libel, in
which Aaron, surgeon, late of Deritend, was
plaintiff. In the Australasian Chronicle for
March 1 7th there is an article headed ' Obscure
Poets ' and signed ' Faulconbridge,' which is
from the pen of your humble servant. Mr. J.
D. Badham, who, you will recollect, was a
passenger to Sydney in the Strathfieldsaye, will
be the bearer of this. He sails in a few days for
Liverpool in the ship Renoivn, part of which
vessel he himself owns. Give our love to father
and mother and all our friends, and for the
present farewell.

Yours affectionately,

H. PARKES.

LETTER THIRTY.

Sydney,
3rd September, 1842.

My Dear Sistbe,

Your letter dated March 28t]i, 1842, was re-
ceived, with four newspapers, about a month
ago, at which time (as you will have learned by
Clarinda's answer) your former letter of the date
November 22nd, 1841, had not come to hand.
It has, however, now reached us by the emigrant
ship TJieresa, which arrived a few days ago, after
a passage of eight months from Plymouth. These
two letters lay before us a frightful picture of
affliction which you must have suffered during
the last severe winter, and our grief receives
additional bitterness from the reflection that
we were at the same time having comparative
ease and happiness, surrounded by all the

12S

LETTER THIRTY 129

luxuriant beauty of an Australian summer. But
I feel it will be some comfort to you to know
we have been exempted by a kind Providence
from sufferings wkicli we would gladly have
shared to alleviate. For the last two years we
have enjoyed a state of almost uninterrupted
health, while the emoluments of "my situation
have procured us many comforts, though we
have hardly yet recovered from the difficulties
of our first year in the colony. At the present
time my income (which is always fluctuating) is
not sufficient for our support, in consequence of
the stagnation of the shipping interests at Sydney,
which, together with all other mercantile trans-
actions, wear a deplorable aspect. Insolvency,
like some fearful epidemic, is daily discovering
itself in some new place, and all kinds of goods
(British goods in particular) are being sacrificed
every day, at considerably less than their invoice
value in England. There are no paAvnbrokers
in Sydne}^, but there are auctioneers who serve
the necessitous in a similar manner, with this
difference, that the man who sends his goods to
the pawnbrokers has a hope (which too fre-
quently is never realised) of redeeming them,
while he whose goods go to the auction mart
knows at once that they are gone from him for

130 AN EMIGRANT'S HOME LETTERS

ever. I saw carpenters' hand-saws sold at one
of these sales not long since at Is. 6d. each.
Mechanics and labourers in Sydney are glad to
obtain employment now at wages 40 or 50 per
cent, lower than they were receiving a year or
eighteen months back, and their money at the
week's end is in many instances uncertain.

Nearly all provisions are, however, now at
very moderate prices; bread is fourpence the
2 lb. loaf, and beef and mutton fourpence per
pound, but house rent is excessively high.

You must not infer from what I have said that
we are here in any danger of starving, for bad
as things are at present I believe they are so
much worse in England that I wish you were all
in safety here. I ought to state that the great
cause of an overabundance of labour now in
Sydney is the objection which men feel to going
into the interior, for, seeing that ' life has ample
room ' in the country, there can be no fear of a
general dearth of employment for a hundred
years to come, provided the amount of capital be
proportionate to that of labour.

As yet I am quite unsettled in my purpose for
the future, or whether or not I shall remain in
the colony, but I hope I shall be more decided
in the course of a year or two. I am beginning-

LETTER TSIRTY 131

to sigh for a permanent home. It may be fixed
in the immense wilds of this wonderful country,
or amidst the native haunts of the New Zealand
savage ; or it may be in the beautiful and fertile
island of Otaheite, or in Chili, or Peru, or it may
be among the settlements of Malacca, or in South
Africa, or the United States of America; but I
am Bad to think it is not likely to be in my
native land, though I still must hope to lay my
bones in old England. As soon as I am able to
write you more explicitly of my views for the
future I will be sure to do so. And I trust I
shall have it in my power before long to repay
your love and kindness to me in past years. Tell
our beloved mother, should this reach you while
she is allowed to remain with you, that the
prospect before her children in this strange
country is fair for the cloudy times we live in,
and assure her of our unabated affection. Tell
her and my dear father and my sisters and
brothers, and my beloved wife's friends also,
that, though every other feeling may be blunted
by continual contact with the world, our love for
them will receive new vigour from trouble and
privation, from strife and sorrow. Long before
you can read this I trust we shall receive a
happier account from you — of health banishing

132 ^.V EMIOJRANTS HOME LETTERS

all traces of sickness, and of suffering and anxiety
giving place to domestic comfort and peace. And
now, my dear sister, for tlie present ' farewell/

HENRY PARKES.

LETTER THIRTY-ONE.

Sydney,
26th January, 1843.

My Dear Sister,

I received in November last your letter of the
date June, 1842, conveying to me the particulars
of my mother's death. I was in some degree
prepared for this sad intelligence, but when I
knew for a certainty that I should see that
dearest face no more, — that she, whose love for us
gathered strength from aJSliction and misfortune,
was now resting in the grave and could no longer
participate in her children's happiness or sorrow,
when I knew that my mother indeed was dead,
I felt as if a portion of this world's beauty was
lost to me for ever. But it is a blessed thing to
know there is another and a better world where
sorrow never troubleth and the weary are at rest.

]33

134 AN EMIGRANT'S HOME LETTERS

Could we have been allowed to meet again, for
me to have heard her bless my dear little child
and listen to her mother's story of her birth, it
would have been to me a happiness greater than
I can ever more expect. This, however, could
not be, and there is One above, who, in His wis-
dom, ordered it should not be so, against whose
decrees we must not rebel. May the almighty
and all-merciful Being comfort and support
those she has left behind in my native country.
Perhaps I am never to see any of you again, but
while I live I shall cling to the hope of returning
to dear England. In my last letter I believe I
mentioned that I had not been very fortunate
lately, and I have delayed writing since with the
hope of being enabled to tell you things with me
were better, Avhich I can assure you is now the
case.

The circumstances of the colony are still very
bad. A large mercantile house failed yesterday
to the amount of £130,000. Declaration of in-
solvency is a matter of almost every day occurr-
ence among the tradespeople of Sydney. Wages
are very low, and employment not very plentiful
in Sydney. In the country the only demand for
labour is as shepherds, and for this purpose the
flock-masters are striving their utmost to obtain

LETTER fHIRTY-ONE 135

hill coolies from India on the ground, they state,
of not being able to give the price of European
labour, which is at present from £15 to £20 per
annum and rations. But I think things will
shortly improve.

In your last letter you remind me of my duty
to assist my father, and I am sorry and ashamed
to tell you it is not in my power at present to
remit anything home. At the earliest possible
period I will do so. I think I may say for
certain in the course of this year. I often wish
he was here with me, as I am sure I could make
him comfortable. I could take a farm of thirty
acres within a few miles of Sydney at as low a
rent as I pay for our house in the town, or I
could purchase an allotment of land and build
ourselves a cottage outside the town, but to all
these things at present the objection is Clarinda's
being left alone at those times when my situa-
tion requires my absence for weeks together. I
have not time to say more, as a ship sails this
afternoon. Give the united love of myself, wife,
and child to all. Clariuda and Clarinda Sarah
are both well.

I am, my dear sister.

Yours most affectionately,

HENRY PARKES.

LETTER THIRTY-TWO.

[Note by A.T. P. — The first portion of this letter is missing.]

. . I think of them as the rural beauties
of a country which my children will call foreign.
Yes! henceforth the country of my children'
shall be mine. Australia has afforded me a
better home than my motherland, and I will
love her with a patriot's love. With regard to
my own individual prospects I am full of hope.
I have had my troubles, as the old ladies say.
When you think of my landing on the soil of
this country with a wife and child, the one only
three days old and the other in the delicate state
of health of a mother at that time, and with only
a few pence and without a home, you will think
I must have had some difficulties to contend with
since my arrival in Australia. And I have had
my share of them in good earnest, and not the
least of them I am grappling with at this

136

LETTER THIRTY -TWO 137

moment. But still I am full of liope. I believe
my circumstances will improve^ and that speedily.
I see my way now quite clearly whicli sliall lead
me to respectability if not competence. I will
write again in about three months, and, though
it is useless for me to write to you oftener, I
should like to hear from you more frequently.
Our little girl, who is now four years old, has
enjoyed the best of health for this last tAvo years
and a half. She is now playing with the cat on
the floor of a little sitting room, the door of which
opens a few yards from the sea. Her dear
mother is lying down — it is Sunday afternoon.
In general Clarinda's health has been pretty
good, and mine, since my arrival in this country,
has been only interrupted by a short sickness
about the date of my first letter to you in 1840.
I have made inquiries after the son of Mrs.
Weston. The ofiicer of Customs who was
boarded on the Joseph Cunard tells me that
he saw him last June. He then looked well and
was respectably dressed. He thinks he was in
some draper's shop, but I have not been able to
ascertain where he is at the present time. If
his friends think proper to address a letter to
him in care of me, it is more than probable that
in the meantime I shall be enabled to find out

138 AN EMIGRANTS HOME LETTERS

where lie is. I must now bid you farewell.
This letter will be enclosed in a small parcel —
the same old box again — and sent in the care of
Henry Smith, an apprentice on the barque
Standering. The trifles inside, with the ex-
ception of five copies of ' Stolen Moments/ are
for yourself. Clarinda will send a few similar
presents by the first opportunity to her father.
Give our united love to all the Varneys whenever
you see them, and let them know the contents of
this letter as far as it relates to my prospects.
I remain, my very dear sister,

Yours most affectionately,

HENRY PARKES.

AN EMIGRANTS HOME LETTERS 139

NOTE.

I cannot better bring this little book to a
close than with the following beautiful letter,
addressed to my mother, his devoted wife for
fifty-two years, of whom he said, on the morning
she lay dead : ' She was a good woman, a good
wife, and a good mother/ She would have
asked for no higher tribute from him. Earthly
titles were nothing to her in comparison. To be
a ' good woman,' a ' good wife,' a ' good mother '
was her highest aim to the last day of her long
and eventful life. There is a bitter-sweet con-
solation to me in the thought that they who trod
life's thorny path together for fifty-two years
now lie side by side at rest for evermore. None
can divide them now. May their good deeds

only be remembered !

A, T. P.

LETTER THIRTY-THREE

October 6th, 1844.

My Deae Wife,

Being hard tasked on board the Harlequin
to get my time off my hands (for day and night
I am utterly alone here) I have resolved to write
you a love letter. It is many days, some of
them, I hope, happy ones, since my last love
letter, and in their wintry sweep over my head
they have let fall some flakes of snow, and then
they have somewhat withered, and in their
course they have hurried us over a dreary wide
distance of billowy sea, severing us, perhaps for
ever, from our native home. But many, many
darker days than the darkest we have known
could not blight or chill that life of love in my
heart which dictated that last letter and which
dictates this. Yes, Clarinda, my own first (for
I have a second now) dear Clarinda, if ever a
heart was constant in its love, that heart is yours

140

AN EMIGRANTS HOME LETTERS 141

in mine. I have questioned myself on this mat-
ter often and deeply, and my soul has returned
one only answer — ' I love her truly, passionately
love her !' My imagination has often of late
conjured up before me my beloved as I first
knew her in the spring of womanhood, and I
have listened again to her first fond words to
me — me, a poor and friendless boy, to whom
then none other had ever spoken fondly; and all
her faults (for faults I tell her most lovingly she
has) were lost in the beauty of her pure and
deep affection. And, oh ! I feel that, though I
was greatly rich and loaded with honour and
courted and flattered by the world (which,
happily, I never shall be), still there would be
one whose smile to me was like the common sun-
shine, without which I could not live to enjoy-
ment.

And this is my love letter to my dear wife and
companion, to whom I am now, for ever and
ever, with a heart full of love,

HENRY PARKES.

APPENDIX.

Note. — The following letter was sent in answer to my
repeated request to Mr. J. G. Hornblower to give me some
account of my father's youthful years, Mr. Hornblower and
his brother being his only friends and companions at that
time. With regard to the poems, ' The Emigrant's Farewell
to his Country' was written just before my father left
England in 1839. I do not know the'date of the poem ' My
Native Land,' but it was written soon after his arrival in the
colony. — A. T. P.

144

InGLEWOODj

Punt Eoad, South Yarba,
6th May, 1890.

My Dear Miss Parkes,

You asked me to send you some reminiscences
of your father's youth. I am afraid you will be
disappointed, as the incidents occurring in what
may be called the ' seed-time ' of his life, which
had any relevancy to the prominent characteristics
of his manhood, were but few and uninteresting.

Doubtless your father has told you that he
was apprenticed to a Mr. John Holding, who is
described in the Birmingham Directory of 1830
as a bone and ivory turner of Moseley-street. I
may say that your father had great aptitude for
his business, and gave much satisfaction to his
employer. During his apprenticeship your father
was somewhat reserved in his demeanour, had

145

146 APPENDIX

but few companions, and occupied his leisure
hours in mental improvement. The cheap pocket
editions of tlie "^ British Poets ' had more attrac-
tion for him than the out-door sports and pas-
times common to youth, and versification became
a habit before he had acquired sufficient mastery
of language to efficiently clothe ' The thoughts
that burst their channel into song.' I was his
printer, and, unknown to my employer, worked
many an hour overtime to put his evanescent
thoughts into print. One of his early poetical
effusions deserved to be placed among the
' Fragmentary Thoughts ' of later days. The
opening lines were ; —

' What of earth that had wings would not wander ou high
' Now the stars in their stillness have peopled the sky,
' And the ocean is fondly embracing with smiles
' Of deep fervour and gladness her favourite isles.'

Another poem of some worth was an expression
of sympathy with the Poles in their final struggle
for national liberty. I mention these as showing
the bias of his mind. He was a most ardent and
enthusiastic reformer, a member of that great
and powerful association the Birmingham Pol-
itical Union, which carried the Reform Bill of
1832. While that important measure was in
jeopardy by the opposition of the House of

APPENDIX 147

Lords; the Council of the Uniou issued an edict
that every member and every man who wished
it passed should wear upon his heart the Union
Jack of Old England ! Jewellers, silversmiths,
steel and gilt toy makers vied with each other in
making these insignia of the people's will as
pretty and attractive as possible, and I well
recollect the one worn by your father was of
ivory, the carving and painting being his own
work. He was one of the multitude Avho
assembled at New Hall Hill, and the impassioned
eloquence of Thomas Attwood, Joshua Scholefield,
Geo. Edmunds and others must have had great
influence in the formation and growth of those
political convictions which he brought with him
to Australia. From 1832 to 1838 your father
was in the turmoil of political excitement; the
Reform Bill was a failure, and the excitement of
the disappointed culminated in the adoption of
the ' national petition,' which demanded all those
political privileges Avliich are now enjoyed by the
people of England and Australia. I forward by
the same post a very scarce copy of the printed
report of the Grand Midland Demonstration at
Hollowa}'^ Head, in 1838, at which your father
was present. It will recall to his mind names as
familiar as household words.

148 APPENDIX

It may interest you to know that your mother's
influence and example had no inconsiderable
share in the formation and development of your
father's religious convnctious. For some years
they Avere both regular attendants at Carr's Lane
Independent Chapel, under the pastorate of tlie
Rev. John Angell James, one of the most learned
and eloquent preachers of his day. At that time
it was your father's custom (and probably your
mother's also) every Sunday afternoon to walk
to Yardley, a village distant some four miles,
teach the children, and exchange tracts with the
parents on his way home. The years 1837 and
1838 were perhaps the most trying of your
father's life. With too much self-respect to join
the ranks of the journeymen of his trade, he rented
premises in Bradford-street, and commenced
business on his own account ; but although his
samples of turner}' would bear favourable com-
parivson with the best, yet lack of capital and the
pressure of competition forced him to retire and
look to other lands in the hope of finding fuller
scope for the exercise of his talents, far away
from the depressing sun'oundings of his ever}'-
day life.

In remembrance of many pleasant hours, and
in appreciation of your father's early friendship.

APPENDIX 149

I shall always feel a pi-ido in having been as-
sociated with one who has risen from comparative
obscurity, reached the highest pinnacle of great-
ness in the councils of his adopted country, and
won for himself the most coveted honour Eng-
land's Queen can bestow.
With kind regards,

I remain,

Yours sincerely,
JOHN G. HORNBLOWER.

THE EMIGRANTS FAREWELL TO HTS
COUNTRY.

I go, my native land, far o'er

The solitary sea,
To regions, where the very stars

Of Heaven will strangers be,

To some untrodden wilderness

Of Australasia's land, —
A home, which man has here denied,

I seek at God's own hand.

I have a mother, ill and poor,

A father, too, in years,
And have no parting gift for them,

No ! nothing save my tears.

I leave them in a busy town,

Where pale mechanics toil
In irksome manufactories,

Shut from the sun and soil.

150

A PPENBIX 151

Fair visions yet, my native land,

Will o'er my lone heart come.
Whene'er I think of friendship's haunts,

Or childhood's peaceful home.

Or love's delightful wanderings,

When she, who shares my lot.
First plucked from 'mong the violets

The sweet forget-me-not.

And then the beauty of such dreams

Will radiate o'er my heart.
Till bitterly I weep, to think

That we were forced to part.

And Heaven two sinless infants lent,
Whose graves are told with thine —

They came and went so angel-like,
I dare not call them mine.

And memory, wlien her mystic chain

Back o'er the past she flings.
Nothing so beautiful as they

From all her treasures brings.

For their sweet sakes, my native land !

Even if I loved not thee.
My heart would hover o'er thee still.

Where'er my home might be !

152 A P PEN BIX

Where will my home be 1 I'll not ask ;

I would not now be told !
Enough to know 'tis God who will

Tn all my being hold,

I do not know what lovely flowers
May deck the new world's vales ;

Ijut, though the brightest bloom abound,
If spring no piirarose hails,

Ith) absent beauties I shall mourn,
For I have loved that flower ;

And my heart's friends have loved it too
From childhood's earliest hour.

MY NATIVE LAND.

The moonlight of a milder clime
Is round me pour'd o'er scenes sublime ;
But I would fly from nil earth's light
And grandeur to behold to-night

My native land !

To-morrow's sua will beauteous ribc
In x\ustralasia's summer skies ;
But more than beautiful to me
Would winter's wildest morning be

In that dear land !

'Twould almost seem that peace and love
Here reign as o'er those realms above ;
But, oh ! the counter-charm of home
Is found not yet, wliere'er I roam,
O'er sea or land !

And greenwoods wave which ne'er are sere
In this December summer iiere ;
But 1 would turn from Eden's bloom
To hail, in winter's waste and gloom,
My native land !

LIST OF SUBSCRIBERS

Copies
The Hon. Sir J. P, Abbott, K.C.M.G., Sydney ... 2

Mrs. T. T. a'Beckett, Brighton, Victoria

Mr. Henry C. L. Anderson, M.A., Public Library of

New South Wales

Mrs. Wm. Angus, Tlascala, Petersham

Mr. W. H. Archer, K.C.P., K.S.G., Grace Park,

Melbourne
Rev. Andrew Armstrong, The Manse, Tamwortli

Mr. H. Z. Armstrong, Milroy

Mrs. Julian Ashton, The Glen, Bondi

His Honour Judge Backhouse, Melita, Elizabeth Bay

Mrs. E. Bage, St. Kilda, Victoria

Mr. Richard T. Baker, Technological Museum,

Sydney

Mr. J. H. Balfour, J. P., Round Hill, Culcairn ...

Ballarat Mechanics' Institute, Ballarat

Ballarat Public Library, Ballarat

Mr. H. E. Barff, M.A., The University, Sydney ...
Mr. Edmund Barton, Wentworth Court, Sydney ...
Mr. VV. J. A. Bently, Merrygorn, Mundooran
Mr. Thomas Berrie, Wallaroobie Station, Coolamon
Messrs. A. W. Birch all and Sons, Launcesfcon

Mr. a. J. Blake, Melbourne

Rev. F. B. Boyce, St. Paul's Parsonage, Sydney ...

158 LIST OF SUBSCRIBERS

Copies
Mr. Edward P. H. Broad, Fitzroy Dockyard, Sydney 1
The Hoisr. Alex, Brown, M.L C, Cumberland Uall,

East Maitlaad

Mr. John Brown, Brownsville

Mr. H. C. Bcdge, Chief Secretary's Office, Sydney
Mr. a. Ormonde Bdtler, C. P.S., Warialda
Mi.ss E. F. Byrnes, George Street, Parramatta
Mr. John J. Calvert, Legislative Council Office,

Sydney ...

Mr. H. G. Cambridge, 114 Pitt Street, Sydney
Mr. J. H. Campbell, Royal Mint, Sydney ...
Mrs. John Capel, Piedmont Station, Cobbadah

Capt. Wm. Cargill, Glebe Point, Sydney

Mr. J. H. Carruthers, Lands Department, Sydney...

Mr. Wm. Carson, Railway Street, Rockdale

Mr. J. W. Child, Oxford Street, Sydney

Miss Chomley, St. Kilda

Mrs. Burnett Cohen, Cahors, Macleay Street, Sydney
Mrs. George J. Cohkn, Engadine, Elizabeth Bay...
Mrs. Nkville Cohen, Liverynga, Elizabeth Bay .
Mrs. Norman Cohen, Cahors, Macleay Street, Sydney
Miss S.'VRA Cohen, Cambrian Villa, Potts Point

Mr. E. W. Cole, Bookseller, Sydney ...

Miss Combes, Glanniire Hall, Glanmire

Mr. J. M. CoNROY, 39 Castlereagh Street, Sydney...

Mr. James Conway, Public School, Cleveland Street,

Sydney

Mr. Samuel Cook, Sydney Morning Herald, Sydney

Mr. R. C. Cooper, Pylara, Tarago

Rev. Dr. Corlette, M.A., St. John's Parsonage,

Ashfield

Mr. Donald Cormack, Dunvegan, Bexley

Mrs. Crooke, Tivoli, South Yarra

Mr. Wm. H. Cruish, Glebe Point, Sydney

LIST OF SUBSCRIBERS 159

Cop
Mr. W. C. Crump, 38 Grafton Street, WooUahra...
Mr. J. F. CcLLEN, Public School, Goonoovvigall
Mr. H. Curry, Abbotsford Road, Homebush
Mr. Samuel Curtis, 83 Clarence Street, Sydney ...
Mrs. Richard Bede Dalley, Merton, Bondi

Mr. a. a. Dangar, Baroona, Whittingham

Mr. Cecil W. Darley, Public Works Department,

Sydney

TuE Hon. Sir Frederick Darley, C.J., Supreme

Court, Sydney ..
Professor T. W. David, The University, Sydney...
Mr. Hanbury Davies, 21 Selborne Chambers, Sydney

Mrs. Davis, Pineville, Petersham

Mr. John Dawson, City Bank Chambers, Sydney ...
Mrs. George Day, Arleston House, Petersham
Mr. a. Dewhurst, Oughtrington, Crookwell

Miss Dibbs, Graythwaite, North Sydney

Sir George Dibbs, K.C.M.G., Passy, Hunter's Hill
Dr. James A. Dick, Catfoss, Randwick
Mr. Leonard Dodus, St. Julian's, Neutral Bay ...
Mr. Thomas E. Dryhurst, Industrial School, Parra-

matta ... ...

Mr W. S. Dun, Mines Department, Sydney

Mr. John W. Eaton, North Sydney

Messrs. Edwards, Dunlop and Co., Ltd., Sydney ...
Messrs. Edwards, Dunlop and Co., Ltd., Brisbane

Mrs. R. L. M. Eckford, Glenroy, Millie

Mr. E. M. G. Eddy, Colebrook, WooUahra

•Mr. T. T. Ewing, M.P., Sydney

Mr. Fegan, M.P., Sydney

Mrs. Fehon, Hunting Tower, Summer Hill

Ven. Archdeacon Flower, Grafton

Miss Forbes, Ardler, King Street, Ash field 2

Mr. Riohard Ford, Melbourne ... .., ... 1

160 LIST OF SUBSCRIBERS

Copies

Mrs. W. J. Foster, Thurnby, Newtown

Mr. \V. R. Gainfokd, 18 Bridge Street, Sydney ...

Mr. J. E. Gard, South Melbourne

Mr. John Garlaxd, Redbank, Darling Point

Mr. Charles A. Garrard, Bank of New Soutli

Wales, Rozelle

Mr. W. J. Gorman, Walcha

Mrs. William Grahame, Strathearn, Waverley ...
Mr. J. G. Griffin, The Etjuitable Buildings, Sydney

Mr. Geo. Gonter, Campsie, Trevallyn

Mr. George Hall, Cressfield, Parkville

Mr. W. H. Hargraves, Equity Court, Sydney
Mr. Laurence Joseph UARNtTT, Parliament House,

Sydney

Miss Harris, Little Bridge, Ultimo

Mr. Charles Henry Harris, 25 Jamieson Street,

Sydney

Mrs. G. Harris, Ultimo House, Ultimo

Mr. John Harris, J. P., Bulwarra, Ultimo

Mr. Matthew Harris, J. P., Warrane, Ultimo
Mr. W. E. Hawkins, 8S Pitt Street, Sydney

Dr. John Theo Heely, Young

Mr. J. E. S. Henerie, B.L., 64 Elizabeth Street,

Sydney

Dr. a. G. Henry, Callan Park, Sydney

Mr. a. E. Hibble, Chief Secretary's Office, Sydney

Mr. J. HiNCHCLiFFE, Bookseller, Waterloo

Mr. Francis J. Hobson, Mt. Cooper, Holt's Flat...

Dr. Hocken, F.L.S., Dunedin

Dr. a. Jarvie Hood, Macquarie Street, Sydney .„
Mr. Vernon W. Howard, McPherson Street,

Waverley

The Hon. John Hughes, Keadue, Elizabeth Bay ...
Mr. Thomas Hughes, Darling Point, Sydney

LIST OF SUBSCRIBERS 161

Copies

Mr. J. W. Humphries, Muswellbrook

Mr. T. R. Icely, J.P., Hotel Metropole, Sydaey ...

Mr. Alfred Jones, Bookseller, Bathurst

Mr. J. R. Jones, Bookseller, Batliurst

Dr. R. T. Jones. Cader Idris, Ashfield

Mr. Fred W. Kaiser, Public School, Nyngaii

Mr. p. J. Kelly, Booroomugga, Nyngan

Hon. Alex. Kbthel, M.L.C, Market Wharf, Sydney
Mr. Whiteley King, 6 Spring Street, Sydney
Mr. John Kinnivane, Garfield Farm, Warren
Mr. Adrian Knox, M.P., Phillip Street, Sydney ..,
KoROiT Mechanics' Institute, Koroit, Victoria
Miss Lane, Oulart, Braemar

Mr. Alfred Lee, Glen Rooua, Bondi

Mr. T. H. Lennaro, Canley Vale

Mr. Julius Levy, Croydon

Mr, C. F. Lewis, St. Arnaud, Victoria

Mr. William Lewis, Stoneleigh, Beaufort, Victoria

Library of the Parliament, Melbourne

Library of the Parliament, Sydney

Mr. Alex. Lindsay, Book.seller, Sydney

Mr. a. Lobban, District Inspector of Schools, Grafton

Mrs. N. Lockyer, Whitmuir, Bexley

Dr. Mark Henry Long, 67 Regent Street, Sydney

Mr. H. K. Lord ...

Professor MacCallum, The University, Sydney
Mr. J. H. McCoLL, M.L.A., Parliament House,

Melbourne

Mr. George McGibbon, Ashfield

Dr. J. Stewart McKay, 11 Cambridge Street,

Stanmore

Mrs. p. F. Mackenzie, The Manse, Annandale ...

Mr. W. M. McLeod, Bookseller, Newcastle 3

Mrs. Henry MacNamara, Oawestney, Glebe Point... 1

162 LIST OF SUBSCRIBERS

Copies
Mr. J. fi. Maiden, P.L.S., Botanic Gardens, Sydney 1
Messrs. Mallam AND Co., Booksellers, Armidale ... 3

Mk. William Manson, Mortlake, Victoria

Mrs. B. F. Marks, Cambrian Villa, Potta Point ...

Mrs. Joun Marks, Glenrock, Darling Point

Mrs. S. Marks, Korein, Challis Avenue, Potts Point

Mr. James Martin, Grantham, Burwood

Mr. H Matthews, Macquarie Place, Sydney

Mr. J. C. Mavnard, Department of Public Instruction,

Sydney ...

Messrs. Melville, Mullen & Slade, Melbourne ... 50
Mr. Oscar Meyer, Barristers' Court, Sydney
Mr. Charles C. Mihell, 327 Pitt Street, Sydney ...

Mr. J. Milson, Elamang, North Sydney

Mr. D. S. Mitchell, 17 Darlinghurst Road, Sydney
Professor Morris, The University, Melbourne
Dr. George Lane Mullins, Murong, Waverley ...
Mr. John Lane Mullins, Killountan, Potts Point
Mr. Robert Murchison, Bank of N.S. VV. , Melbourne

Mrs. George Murray, Liverpool ..,

Mrs. Mary Neilson, Tebbutt Street, Windsor

Newcastle School of Arts, Newcastle

Miss J. A. Nicoll, Uurlstone College, Ashfield

Miss O'Brien, Havvarden, Annandale

Dr. Maurice O'Connor, Woolpack Hotel, Parramatta

Dr. Denis O'Donovan, C.M.G., Brisbane

Mr. Thomas A. Parkes, Wynoonga, Ashfield
Mr. G. W. Phillips, fiazeldean, Summer Hill
Mrs. Joseph Picton, Gundablouie, Mogil Mogil ...
Mb. A. B. Piddington, M.P., Phillip Street, Sydney

The Hon. F. W. Piesse, M.L.C, Hobart

Mr. E. F. Pittman, Government Geologist, Sydney
Mr. John Plummer, Northwood, Lane Cove
Mr. A. J. Quayle, Telegherry, Stroud

LIST OF SUBSCRIBERS 163

Copies
The Hon. G. H. Reid, The Treasury, Sydney
Mr. E. a. Rennie, Audit Department, Sydney
Mr. R H. Reynolds, Engehurst, Paddington
Mr. H. G. Rienits, The School, Mount Victoria ...

Mr. a. J. Riley, 570 George Street, Sydney

The Hon^. C. J. Roberts, Oesterly, Macleay Street,

Sydney ... .«. ... ... ... ..."

Messrs. George Robertson and Co., Booksellers,

Sydney

Dr. Ross, M.P., Molong

Mr. F. Salier, Hobart

The Hon. Sir Julian Salomons, Q.C, Sydney
Mrs. John Sands, Marmion, Waverley
Mr, J. M. Sandy, 271 George Street, Sydney
Mr. E. Sansome, 339 Elizabeth Street, Sydney

Mr. W. T. Seaward, Belle Vue, Ashiield

Mr. Edmund Selby, Wigram Road, Forest Lodge ...
The Hon. Mr. Justice Simpson, Cloncorick, Darling

Point

Mrs. Simson, Temple Leigh, Croydon

Mr. R. W. Skinner, Bookseller, Sydney

Mr. Geo. J. Sly, LL.D., George Street, Sydney ...

Mr. Bruce Smith, 149 Phillip Street, Sydney

Miss Emily Burdett-Smith, 203 Macquarie Street

North, Sydney...

Mrs. J. Smith, Hanarth, Bathurst

Mr. T. L. Smith, Bookseller, Sydney

Mr. Henry Spiers, Amphitheatre, Victoria

Mr. H. Peden Steel, 98 Pitt Street, Sydney
Mr. David Storey, M.P., 81 York Street, Sydney
Professor Anderson Stuart, M. i^., The Octagon,
Darling Point ...

Mr Walter S. Syer, Acacia, Neutral Bay

Miss Taplin, Matron of the Infants' Home, Ashfield

164 LIST OF SUBSCRIBERS

Copies
2

Mr. John Taylor, Church Street, Parramatta
Mr. J. C. TnoM, Solicitor for Railways, Sydney
Capt. W. C. Thomson, A. U.S.N. Company ...
Miss M. Thorne, Prestoaville, Potts Point ...

Dr. R. C. Thorp, North Parramatta

Mr. a. a. p. Tiohe, Waratah

Mr. Jamks T. Tillock, Kent Street, Sydney

Mr. Alexander H. Turnbcll, Wellington, N.Z. ..

Mr. Henry Turner, Bank of New South Wales,

Sydney

Messrs. Turner and Henderson, Booksellers, Sydney 25

Mr. R. p. Tweeddy, Llandilo, Penrith

Mr. James R. Tyrrell, 3 Glebe Road, Sydney

Mr. J. L. Waddell, Quambone

Mr. Critchett Walker, C.M.G., Chief Secretary's

Office, Sydney ...

Rev. John Walker, Braeside, Woollahra

Mr. J. T. Walker, Rosemoat, Woollahra

Mr. Robt. C. Walker, Moolwa, near Merrylaads ...
The Hon. James Watson, M.L.C, Glanworth,

Darling Point ... ... ... .„

Mr. Samuel Watson, Institute for Deaf and Blind,

Sydney

The Hon. Chief Justice Way, Supreme Court, Adelaide

Mrs. Wener, Greenwells, Walcha

Wesleyan Book Depot, Sydney

Mil. Thomas Whitley, Blackheath ...

Mr. VV alter Wilson, Chief Secretary's Office, Sydney

Sir William Windeyer, LL.D., Tomago, Hunter River

Mr. B. R. Wise, Phillip Street, Sydney

Mr. Holyoake Woodd, Rockhampton, Queensland

Mr. Charles Young, Hilltop, Garland

The Hon. J. H. Young, Public Works Office, Sydney
The Hon. Sir William A. Zeal, Melbourne

MESSRS. ANGUS AND ROBERTSON'S

PUBLICATIONS AND ANNOUNCEMENTS.

Publications, Pages 1 to 15,
Announcements, Page 16.

London and Edinburgh: Young J. Pknii-and.'
Glasgow : James Maclehose & Sons.

89 Castlereagh Street,

SYDNEY— October, 1S96.

Messrs. ANGUS d ROBERTSON'S PUBLICATIONS.

THE DAYS WHEN THE WORLD WAS
WIDE AND OTHER VERSES.

By Henry Laivson.

Author of While the, Billy BoiU.

Fifth thousand, tcith portrait and vignette title. Groion Svo., cloth,

gilt top, 5s. ; post free, 5s. 5d.

IN SPECIAL BINDINGS SUITABLE FOR PRESENTATION.

French Morocco, limp, with gilt edges, gilt line, lettered back and side
Rutland „ ,, round corners, „ ,, ,, ,,

,, .. vadd

Turkey

limj)
padded

s. d.
8 6

13 0

14 6
16 6
18 0

CONTENTS.

In the Days when the World

was Wide
Faces in the Street
The Roaring Days
' For'ard '

The Drover's Sweetheart
Out Back

The Free-selector's Daughter
Sez You

Andy's Gone with Cattle
Jack Dunn, of Nevertire
Trooper Campbell
When your Pants begin to Go
The Glass on the Bar
The Shanty on the Rise
The Vagabond
Sweeney

Middleton's Rouseabout
The Ballad of the Drover
Taking his Chance
When the ' Army ' prays for

Watty
Wreck of the ' Derry Castle'
Ben Duggan
The Star of Australasia
The Great Grey Plain

The Song of Old Joe Swallow
Corny Bill
Lake Eliza
Up the Country
Knocked Up
The Blue Mountains
The City Bushman
Eurunderee
Mount Buckaroo
Ross's Farm
The Teams
Cameron's Heart
The Shame of Going Back
Since Then

Peter Anderson and Co.
When the Children come Home
Dan the Wreck
Prouder Man than You
The Song and the Sigh
The Cambakoora Star
Skeleton Flat
Marshall's Mate
The Poets of the Tomb
The Ghost

Australian Bards and Bush
Reviewers

London and Edinburgh : Young J. Pentland.

Messrs. ANGUS d ROBERTSON'S PUBLICATIONS,

PRESS NOTICES of " Jn the Days when the World ivan Wide."

In the course of a three-page notice in The Idler for August, Mr.
Richard le Gallienne says : — " A striking volume of ballad
poetry. ... A volume to console one for the tantalising
postponement of Mr. Kipling's promised volume of Sea
Ballads."

*' The verses have natural vigour, the writer has a rough, true
faculty of characterisation, and the book is racy of the soil from
cover to cover. . . . Space forbids anything in the way of
quotation, and we can do no more than call attention to the
breezy sweep of such lines as those in ' In the Days when the
World was Wide,' the pitiless realism of 'Out Back,' the
quaint moralising in ' For'ard,' the grim fatalism of * Taking
his Chance,' the reflective insight in parts of such pieces as
'Faces in the Street,' ' Peter Anderson and Co.,' the ring of
'The Roaring Days,' and the hopeless note of monotony in
' The Great Grey Plain.' " — Sydney Morning Herald.

" We can say of this book as a whole that it will rank as one of our
most treasured possessions, and we cannot too highly recommend
it to our readers." — New Zealand Mail.

" *In the Days when the World was Wide,' and other verses, by
Henry Lawson, is poetry, and some of it poetry of a very high
order. — Melbourne Acje.

" It is with no small degree of pleasure that we welcome the selection
of his poems just published." — The Queenslander.

" How graphic he is, how natural, how true, how strong '" — Bvlletin,

" We have for many years had a notion that Henry Lawson possesses
genius of the rarest and finest kind, and the reading and re-
reading of these collected pieces has confirmed our faith." — New
Zealand Weekly Press.

"What Kipling has done for ' Tommy Atkins ' in the great Indian
colony, Lawson has done for the silent wanderer on the dreary
Australian plains." — Town and Country Journal.

" Lawson has much of the grim, fascinating mixture of humour and
pathos that was once deemed Bret Harte's own." — Canterbury
Times.

"There are grand songs in it, with a cheery swing, that are full of
the odour of the gum bush, that are resonant with the sounds
of Australian life." — Sydney Stock and Station Journal.

London and Edinburgh : Young J. Fentland.

Messrs. ANGUS d ROBERTSON'S PUBLICATIONS.

THE MAN FROM SNOWY RIVER AND
OTHER VERSES.

By A. B. Paterson ("The Banjo").

Tenth thousand, ivith portrait and vignette title. Crown 8vo. , cloth,
gilt top, 5s. ; post free, 5s. 5d.

IN SPECIAL BINDINGS SUITABLE FOR PRESENTATION.

s. d.

French Morocco, limp, with gilt edges, gilt line, lettered hack and side 8 6
Rutland „ „ round corners, „ „ ,, ,, 13 0

,, ,, padded „ „ ,, „ „ 14 6

Turkey „ limp „ ,, „ „ „ 16 6

„ ,, padded „ „ ,, ,, „ IS 0

ENGLISH PRESS NOTICES.

" At his best he compares not unfavourably with the author of
'Barrack Room Ballads.'" — The Times.

" He shows real poetical power." — Pall Mall Gazette,

"These lines have the true lyrical cry in them. Eloquent and
ardent verses."— Spectator.

" It has the saving grace of humour ; a deal of real laughter and a
dash of real tears." — The Scotsman.

" We turn to Mr. Paterson's roaring muse with instantaneous
gratitude." — Literary World,

" The poet has also a note of pathos, which is always wholesome." —
Glasgoiv Herald.

The material is new as the treatment is artistic." — Black and
White

" True poetical spirit, keen observation, and a capital swing of
metre in this interesting volume." — Manchester Courier.

" Mr. Paterson can produce charming poetry in sweet and natural
language." — North British Advertiser,

London: Macmillan and Co., Limited,

Messrs. ANGUS S ROBERTSON'S PUBLICATIONS.

ENGLISH PRESS NOTICES {contimied)

" This book would be a capital companion on a holiday trip, for the

epithet ' dull ' cannot be applied to a single line of it. "^IFes^ej'n

Daily P^-etiS.
"But Australia has produced in Mr. A. B. Paterson a national poet,

whose bush ballads are as distinctly characteristic of the country

as Burns's poetry is characteristic of Scotland." — Weslminster

Gazette.

AUSTRALIAN PRESS NOTICES.

" There is hope for the Australian poet when a volume of verse goes
into its third edition within six weeks of its first publication,
and great encouragement is to be extracted from the fact that
the success of the book is entirely justified by the quality of its
contents." — Melbourne Argus.

"Certainly no such distinctive verse has appeared among us for
years." — Sydney Morninrj Herald.

"A collection of really admirable poems." — The Queen-slander.

"A welcome addition to the scanty roll of writers of distinctively
Australian verse. The writer knows how to tell a stirring
incident in a spirited and vigorous manner, and the local
colouring is exact and truthful." — Australasian.

"The four bush ballads just mentioned are to be heard all over
Australia — in every station hut from Cape York to Wilson's
Promontory, from Cape Palmerston to Shark Bay — wherever
white man has settled." — Brisbane Courier.

". . . the stirring bush ballads of Mr. A. B. Paterson, widely
known as ' The Banjo,' and author of the immortal verses
about Clancy of the Overflow." — Melbourne Age.

" There is a lilt and go in his verses which are highly inspiriting." —
Melbourne Leader.

" We will go one better even than Rolf Bold re wood, and claim for
Mr. Paterson's verse a certain ring that has no counterpart in
Gordon or any other poet of our land." — S. A. Register.

"The body of what lies between these covers is in some respects
distinctly better, as Australian Literature, than the few of
Gordon's poems in which the local element has been made
unmistakable." — Sydney Daily Telegraph.

" The best book published in Australia for very many years." — J-
Brunton Stephens.

London : Macmillan and Co. , Limited.

Messrs. ANGUS d ROBERTSO^'S PUBLICATIONS.

Songs
FROM "THE MAN FROM SNOWY RIVER."

The Bushman's Song, " I'm travelling down the Castle-
leagh ancM'm a station hand." Words by A. B. Paterson,
Music by E. P. Truman. 23. net ; post free, 2s. 2d.

Last Week. " Oh! the new chum went to the back block

run, but he should have gone there last week." Humorous song,

words by A. B. Paterson, music by E. P. Truman. 2s. net ;

post free, 2s. 2d.
" ' A Bushman's Song,' with its capital chorus, has been wedded to

a firm and spirited melody, and there is a vein of quaint melody

in ' Last Week ' which fairly suits the humour of the verse." —

Sydney Morning Herald.
" The songs are musical, and should quickly become popular." —

Neivcafitle Morning Herald.
"We can highly recommend the 'Bushman's Song' and 'Last

Week ' to vocalists in search of good songs." — Launceston Daily

Telegraph.
" Strikingly attractive airs." — Walgett News.
"Songs characteristic of the Australian bush. Music excellently

placed." — Wagga Express.
" ' Last Week ' is a rattling good song . . . full of dash. In

' The Bushman's Song ' author and composer are again in

touch." — Richmond Eiver Exjyress.

Daylight is Dying. Words* by A. B. Paterson, Music by
Rene Goring-Thomas. 2s. net ; post free, 2s. 2d.

* The first twelve lines of " Daylight is Dying " are from " The
Man from Snowy Biver;" the remaining twelve have been specially
written by Mr. Paterson for this song.

" ' The Daylight is Dying ' should prove popular.'' — Sydney Morning
Herald.

"A very attractive and melodious song." — Daily Telegraph.

"The easy range of the song, coupled with its simplicity and sweet-
ness, should make it a general favourite." — Educational Gazette,
N.S.W.

" This pretty song only requires to be known to become very
popular." — The Presbyterian.

" Altogether, it it a very beautiful song.'' — Evening Neios.

" The simple grace of the music is in harmony with the words." —
Town and Country Journal.

Messrs. ANGUS d ROBEBTSON'S PUBLICATIONS.

WHILE THE BILLY BOILS : AUSTRALIAN
STORIES.

By Hemy Lawson.

Author of In the Dayn lohen the World ivas Wide.

Fourth Thousand, Croicn Sro., doth, gilt top, ivith eight fidl -page 2}lcites

and vignette title hy F. P. Mahony, 5s. ; post free, 5s. 6d.

CONTENTS.

An Old Mate of Your Father'.^

Settling on the Land

Enter Mitchell

Stifiher and Jim

When the Sun Went Down

The Man Who Forgot

Hungerford

A Camp-Fire Yarn

His Country— After All

A Day on a Selection

That There Dog o' Mine

Going Blind

Arvie Aspinall's Alarm Clock

Stragglers

The Union Buries Its Dead

On the Edge of a Plain

In a Dry Season

He'd Come Back

Another of Mitchell's Plans for

the Future
Steelman
Drifted Back
Remailed
The Drover's Wife
Mitchell Doesn't Believe in the

Sack
Shooting the Moon
His Father's Mate

An Echo from the Old Bark

School
The Shearing of the Cook's Dog
Dossing Out and Camping
Across the Straits
Steelman's Pupil
An Unfinished Love Story
Board and Residence
His Colonial Oath
Some Day

A Visit of Condolence
In a Wet Season
Rats

Mitchell : a Character Sketch
The Bush Undertaker
Our Pipes
Coming Across — a Study in

the Steerage
Tlie Story of Malachi
Two Dogs and a Fence
Jones's Alley
Brummy Usen
Bogg of Geebung
She Wouldn't Speak
The Geological Spieler
Macquarie's Mate
Baldy Thompson
For Auld Lang Syne

PRESS NOTICES.
With enough realism in them to furnish forth the literary stock-
in-trade of a wilderness of pseudo-Australian novelists and
story-tellers. The book is admirably illustrated with eight
pictures by Mr. Frank Mahony." — Sydney Morning Herald.

Messrs. ANGUS d- ROBERTSON'S PUBLICATIONS.

PRESS NOTICES of " While the Billy Boils " (cmtinued)

" The collection of short stories just published from the pen of Mr.
Henry Lawson entitio their author to honourable rank among
writers of Australian fiction. . . . Mr. Lawson appears to know
his subject thoroughly, which is one great recommendation, and
he shows undeniable skill in handling it, which is another. . . .
No other Australian writer we bring to mind could do such
work as this with more graphic power and certainty of touch."
— The Argus.

" While the Billy Boils " gives Mm an assured place amongst the

few Australian prose writers it is impossible to

deny it very high praise indeed." — Revieio of Reviews (Australian
Edition).

" There is both humour and pathos in the volume, which deserves
to be read not only for the amusement it contains, but also for
its faithful delineation of some characteristic aspects of
Australian \iie."—The Australasian.

" The best book on Australian bush life ever published, we call it,
without the slightest reservation." — New Zealand Mail.

"It is strong, fresh, and healthy ; it constitutes in the present a
delightful spur to association and reminiscence ; it will become
in the future a social history ; and, finally, it is a book of which
all Australasian readers should feel proud to think it was written
by a compatriot."— Oiar/o Witness.

*' We might easily fill several pages of The Queenslander without
wearying the reader." — The Queenslander.

" They form the most excellent and, in a literary sense, the most
faultless, set of delineations of bush and back-blocks life which
has yet been produced in Australia." — Daily Telegrajjh.

*' Its pages give us Australia in a hundred phases of character, of
episode, and of scenery. He is gifted, indeed, who knows his
Australia as Lawson knows it." — Bathurst Free Press.

" The author tells a story in the most effective way. He wastes no
words ; but, using the most fit phrases, he makes vividly clear
what he wants the reader to apprehend." — Maitland Mercury.

" Bush sketches, all written closely and tersely, and all painting
pictures so wholly true to nature that in his mind's eye the
reader can see the two selectors leaning over the slip-rail, yarn-
ing. . . ." — Melbourne Sportsman.

"The great world that peoples the bush, good and bad, all touched
with the touch of actuality, which can only come from the man
who has lived through that of which he writes." — Sydney Mail.

Messrs. ANGUS d ROBERTSONS PUBLICATIONS-

PRESS NOTICES of " While the Billy Boils " {continued)

"Mr. Lawson has taken the swagsman by the hand and has intro-
duced him to the English-speaking public." — Sydney Freeman's
Journal.

" Lawson is a true son of the Australian bush, a genius to the
finger tips." — Oundagai Times.

•'The book is bright lively reading in every page it contains." —
Tasmanian Mail.

" Mr. Lawson is in the very first rank amongst Australian story-
tellers. " — Bendigo Independent.

*' Raises Mr. Lawson at one bound to a place in the foremost rank
of typically Australian writers." — Goxdhurn Post.

" Many of them are of thrilling interest and with touches of pathos
here and there." — Southland Times.

•'Lawson's work is certainly literature of a high order." — Timivorth
News.

" We have no hesitation in saying that it is the best collection of
short stories ever brought out in this colony." — Madeay Argus.

" The volume is most captivating reading." — Maitland Mercury.

" The book is Australian to the core, without the faults ot the
ordinary tepid Australian Literature, with which we are, alas,
too often afflicted." — Machay Merctcry,

" As Marcus Clarke has written the greatest Australian novel, so
Lawson has penned the best collection of Australian Stories." —
Dungog Chronicle.

AN EMIGRANT'S HOME LETTERS.

By Sir Henry ParJces, G.C.M.G.

With Preface and Notes by Annie T. Parkes.

Printed on Dutch hand-made paper, in Crown Svo. , cloth, gilt top,
imce, 6s. ; j)ost free, 6s. //.d.

Note by the Publishers.

This volume contain the letters of Henry Parkes to his sister
Sarah during the periods immediately preceding and succeed in

10
Messrs. ANGUS S ROBERTSON'S PUBLICATIONS.

AN EMIGRANT'S HOME LETTERS (continued)

his emigration to Australia (1838-43). They record his struggles
for bread in London, his voyage in an emigrant ship, and the hard
experiences of his first two or three years in New South Wales.
Sometimes, in a lighter vein, they tell of his high hopes and aspira-
tions ; of his poetical efi"orts ; of his animal pets ; of his scanty but
much-treasured collection of books ; and last, but not least, of his
passionate love of Home and Kindred. To these have been added a
few other letters, including a charming one to his wife, written on
board ship in Sydney Harbour while on duty as Custom House
Officer. Those who are acquainted with his epistolary style will be
deeply interested in these early specimens ; and all must, we think,
agree with us that these charming letters, which convey actual
impressions at the time of writing, and which were penned without
thought of publication, are, from many points of view, much more
valuable than mere autobiography.

THE CLAIRAUDIENT : A STORY OF
PSYCHICAL RESEARCH.

By Ernest Rohin.

Fcap. Svo., paper covers. Is. ; post free, Is. 2d.

DETACHABLE DIET LISTS FOR AUSTRALIAN
MEDICAL PRACTITIONERS.

By J. W. SPRINGTHORPE, M.D., Lecturer on Dietetics,
&c., in the University of Melbourne, and GEORGE LANE
MULLINS, M.D., Physician to the Hospice for the Dying,
Sydney. Oblong 8vo., cloth, 6s. ; post free, 6s. 4d.

" This is a book suitable for the pocket or handbag, and contains
160 diet lists of twelve different kinds, viz. : — 1, Albuminuria ;
2, Anffimia and Debility ; 3, Biliousness ; 4, Constipation ; 5,
Convalescence ; 6, Diabetes ; 7, Diarrhoea ; 8. Dyspepsia ; 9,
Gout ; 10, Infant Feeding ; 11, Phthisis and Wasting Disease ;
and 12, Pyrexia. These are also so arranged that a record of
particulars of each case can be retained on a butt, whilst the

Messrs. ANGUS S ROBERTSON'S PUBLICATIONS.

DETACHABLE DIET LISTS, &c. (continued)

sheet containing the special diet With instructions for itS
preparation, when necessary, can be torn off at a perforated
section and handed to the patient. . . . We cannot close
this notice without special commendation of Dietary 10, con-
taining explicit instructions for infant feeding for the different
weeks and months of an infant's early life. In the compilation
of this alone the authors become the benefactors to children and
the saviours of infantile life. VVe most warmly recommend this
book as an essential companion to every practitioner in his con-
sulting room and on his rounds of visits, being, as it is, a very
useful means for readily responding to that often-asked and
puzzling question — 'And what about the diet. Doctor?'" —
Australasian Medical Gazette, May, 1896.

" The lists now under consideration have been compiled to suit
especially Australian and New Zealand practitioners. The
authors have done their work in a manner reflecting the greatest
credit upon themselves, and these lists will, we feel certain,
become widely used among us." — New Zealand Medical Journal,
July, 1896.

Dr. William Bland.

Account of the Duel between William Bland and Robert
Case and the circumstances that led thereto, drawn up for pos-
terity by Dr. William Bland. From the original MS. in Dr.
Bland's Autograph, to which is appended a report of the trial
Rex v. Bland. Randall and Fulton, before the Recorder of Bom-
bay, 14th and 17th April, 1813. With facsimile oj Dr. Bland's
Autograph. (Only 33 copies printed, each numbered and signed.)
4to., half hound. 25s. [Only a few copies remain.

First Expedition Across the Blue Mountains.

Blaxland's Journal of a Tour of Discovery across the Blue
Mountains in N.S.W. Aline for line reproduction of the very
scarce original edition of 1823, Only 55 copies printed, each
numbered and signed, Croion 8vo., hand-made pajier, half
morocco. 10s, 6d. [Only a feiv copies remain

Rev. J. Milne Curran, B .G.S.

Contribution to the Microscopic Structure of some
Australian Rocks, With three plates. Sio., seicn. 3s. ; post
free, 3s. 2d.

Messrs. ANGUS S EOBERTSON'S PUBLICATIONS.

Rev. J. Milne Curran, F.G.S.

Contribution to the GeoloEjy and Petrography of

Bathurst, New South Wales. With four 'plattn. Svo., sewn, 3s. ;
post free, 3s. 2d.

Directory for Public Worshij?.

Directory for the Public Worship of God in the Presbyterian
Churches of Australia and Tasmania. Approved by the
Federal Assembly, and recommended for adoption by Ministers
of the Churches. Cloth. Is. 6d. ; post free. Is. 8d,

A. a Geikie, D.D., LL.I .

The Presbyterian Union of 1865 and notices of some who
wrought it. Fcap. Svo., sewn, Is. ; post free, Is. Id,

Dr. Samuel T. K^iaggs.

Dr. De Lion — Clairvoyant. Confessions of a vagabond life
in Australia, as narrated by Maiben Brook. Svo., sewn, Is.
post free. Is. 3d.

Henry Laivson.

In the Days When the World was Wide and other Verses.
Edition de Luxe on Large Paper, -with portait of Author.
Limited to 50 copies, each numbered and signed. [Out of print

F. Milford, M.D.

An Australian Handbook of Obstetric Nursing, compiled
for the use of Midwives and Nurses. With over 00 illustrations.
Fcap. Svo., Paper covers, 2s. 6J. ; post free, 2s. lOd. ; cloth,
3s. 6d. ; post free, 3s. lOd.

Dr. George Lane Mullins.

Register of Administrations of Anaesthetics for use in
Hospitals, Public Institutions and Private Practice. 4to., cloth,
5s. ; post free, 5s. 6d.

Messrs, ANGUS & ROBERTSON'S PUBLICATIONS.

W. H. W. Nicholls, B.A.

Livy.— Book XX VT. (University Text Book for 1897).
With Introduction and Notes. Crown 8vo., boards, 3s. 6d. ;
post free, 3s. 9d.

A. G. Ralston, M.A., Barrister-at-Law.

Divorce Law, with all the Acts and Rules now in force
relating to Marriage, Divorce and all matters Matrimonial.
8vo., cloth, 7s. 6d. ; -post free, 7s. lOd.

Junior English Text Book for 1897.

Shakespeare's Midsummer Night's Dream, with notes by
K. Deighton. Is. ; post free. Is. 2d.
*^* This is prescribed for the New South Wales Junior Public
Examination of 1897. The present Australian Edition is published
at Is. by arrangement with Messrs. Macmillan and Co., who issued
the English Edition in 1891 at Is. 9d. It is unnecessary to say any-
thing about the excellence of Messrs. Macmillan's publications, and
books with Deighton's notes are already favourably known in
Australia.

ANGUS & ROBERTSON'S SCHOOL SERIES.

Grammar and Derivation Book 2d.

Table Book and Mental Arithmetic ... ... ... .„ Id.

Geography — Part I., Australasia .. ... ... .. ... 2d.

,, Part II., Europe, Asia, Africa, and America ... 2d.

,, The two parts in one ... ... ... ... ... 4d.

Spelling Book for Second Australian Reader ... ... ... 2d.

„ ., Third „ „ 2d.

,, ,, Fourth ,, ,, 2d.

English History, Part I., 55 B.C. to 1485 A.D 2d.

„ „ Part II., 1485 A.D. to Victoria 2d.

Australian History ... ... ... ... ... 2d.

Euclid, Book I. 2d.

,, ,, II., with Exercises on Books I. and II 2d.

,, ,, I. and II. (combined) ... ... ... ... 4d.

Arithmetic: Home Exercises for Class III. 2d.

,, Home Exercises for Class lY. 2d.

,, Answers to above each 2d.

Messrs. ANGUS & ROBERTSON'S PUBLICATIONS.

THE AUSTRALIAN COPY BOOK,

In Ten Numbers, 2d. each.

WHOLLY ENGRAVED AND PRINTED IN NEW
SOUTH WALES.

The Australian Copy Book Blotter, Id.

Testimonials.

An Expert's Opinion.— Sydney, 26th May, 1896.— The series
is a capital one from start to finish, and compares most favourably
with the more popular copy books published at home, both as re-
gards style of writing and the general ' get up ' of the work.
James Bruce, Professor of Writing,

Sydney Gram. School, St. Ignatius Coll., etc.

Australian Joint Stock Bank, Ltd., Sydney, 20th May, 1896.

— The style of writing aimed at is in my opinion a great improve -
ment upon the old sloping characters. — \Vm. Reid, Secretary.

Australian Mutual Provident Society, Sydney, 20th May,

1896. —I think your Australian Copy Books are admirably adapted
to enable pupils to acquire a thoroughly good commercial style of
handwriting. — Richard Teece, General Manager.

Bank of Australasia, Sydney, 15th May, 1896.— I am of
opinion that the style of handwriting adopted in your new series is
strikingly clear and legible, and is specially suitable for banking and
commercial book-keeping and correspondence. — A. Hellicar, Gen.
Manager.

BankofN.S.W., Sydney, 20th May, 1896.— Your Copy Books
seem well calculated to lay the foundation of a good mercantile
handwriting. — J. RussELL FRENCH, General Manager.

Bank of New Zealand, Sydney, 20th May, 1896.— Your books
are in my opinion very suitable for general commercial requirements.
— T. J. Parfitt, General Manager.

City Bank of Sydney, Sth May, 1896.— I consider the style of
writing as developed in the series very suitable for use in business.
— C. Stanton, General Manager.

Messrs. ANGUS & ROBERTSON'S PUBLICATIONS.

AUSTRALIAN COPY BOOK (contimied)

Department of Lands, N. S. Wales, Sydney, 29th May, 1S96.
— The style of writing appears to be well calculated to form an
upright roundhand which I think the most desirable on account of
its legibility. — VA'', Houston, Under-Secretary for Lands.

General Post Office, Sydney, 13th May, 1896.— I find the
Australian Copy Books admirably adapted to encourage the for-
mation of a free business style. A wise departure from old rigid
forms has been made, and a style more in conformity with actual
commercial requirements kept steadily in view. — Joseph Cook,
Postmaster- General.

Messrs. W. Gardiner and Co., Sydney, 21 st May, 1896. -I

beg to say that, in my opinion, the style of writing used in your new
Australian Copy Books is clear, legible, and suitable in every way
for commercial purposes. — Wm. H. Hoskinos, General Manager.

Mutual Life Association of Australasia, Sydney, I3th May,

1896. — I congratulate you on issuing a set of copy books which is so
great an improvement upon any I have heretofore seen. — J, C.
Remington, General Manager.

Messrs. Goldsbrough, Mort and Co., Ltd., Sydney, 20th

May, 1S96.— I have pleasure in expressing complete approval of the
style of writing adopted in your series. I am satisfied that the
publication of your Copy Book is a distinct step in the right direc-
tion, and trust that it will be generally taken advantage of by
teachers both in our public and private schools. — George Maiden,
General Manager.

Messrs. Gibbs, Bright and Co., Sydney, 2lst May, 1896.—

The Australian Copy Books appear admirably suited for the purpose
intended, as the style of writing should develop a good business
hand, while the commercial terms and forms afiford useful informa-
tion as well as instruction, — A. W. Meeks, General Manager.
Messrs, Lark, Sons and Co., Ltd., Sydney, I4th May, 1896.—

The style of penmanship is both clear and bold, and should prove a
boon to the mercantile world generally. — E. L. Truman, Secretary.

Messrs. Winehcombe, Carson and Co., Sydney, sth May,

1896. — Likely to result in the acquirement of a good, clear com-
mercial hand.— F. E. Winchcombe.

Messrs. Robert Reid and Co., Sydney, 20th May, 1896 —

Your Australian Copy Books are certainly an excellent set and
compare favourably with the best of the imported article we have
seen. — Wm. Johnstone, General Manager.

Messrs. ANGUS & ROBERTSON'S ANNOUNCEMENTS

AUSTRALIAN COPY BOOK (Continued)

Savings Bank of N.S.W., Sydney, 13th May, 1896.— I beg to
express the opinion that they appear well designed to give young
people a knowledge of a good clear business hand. — George
Richard Dibbs, General Manager.

THE AUSTRALIAN COPY ROOK ANNUAL WRITING
COMPETITION.

Open to all Pupils in the Schools of Australasia.

One Gold Medal, one Silver Medal, and 118 Book Prizes to the

value of £30.

SPECIAL PRIZES FOR PUPIL TEACHERS.

The following prizes will be awarded to pupil teachers for the

best written set of the Australian Copy Book, Nos. 1 to 10 inclusive:

1st prize ... Gold medal.
2nd ,, ... Silver medal.
3rd ,, ... Books value 25s.

4th prize ... Books value 20s.
5th ,, ... „ „ 15s.
6th ,, ... „ ,, 10s.

For further particulars apply to the publishers.

Rev. J. Milne Curran, F.G.S.

Elementary Geology for Australian Students, with about
200 illustrations, mostly of Australian subjects. By Rev.
John Milne Ccrran, Lecturer in Geology, Department of
Technical Education, N. S. \V. [In jireparation.

Victor J. Daley.

Poems. By Victor J. Daley. [Shortly.

Edward Dyson.

Rhymes from the Mines and other Lines. By Edward
Dyson, Author of A Golden Shanty. [Shortly.

John Farrell.
My Sundowner and other Poems, By John Farrell,

Author of Hoiv he Died. [Shortly.

Barcroft H. Boake.
Poems. By Barcroft H. Boake. Edited, with memoir,
by A. G. Stephens. [In preparation.

Wbbsdale, Shoosmith and Co., Printers, ll? Clarence-st., Sydney.

UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LIBRARY

Los Angeles
This book is DUE on the last date stamped below.

R E c

MAIN LOAN

DESK

JUL 5iaa

P M

Form L9-25m-7,'63(D8618s8)444

3 1158 00448 0082 ^2

.2A3

UC SOUTHERN REGIONAL LIBRARY FACILITY

AA 000 975 773 3

Internet Archive Audio

Featured

Top

Images

Featured

Top

Software

Featured

Top

Texts

Featured

Top

Video

Featured

Top

Mobile Apps

Browser Extensions

Archive-It Subscription

Save Page Now

Full text of "An emigrant's home letters"

See other formats